With the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, Apple announced the ability to use Siri to access health and fitness data and even log data in the Health app. It’s one of those features, like Double Tap, that wasn’t available at launch but would come via a software update. Although it was never explicitly stated, the new Siri capabilities also work fine on the iPhone.
The latest beta versions of iOS 17.2 and watchOS 10.2 now support this feature, so it will almost certainly be present in the final release. Here’s an overview of what this new feature does and how it works.
What you need
To use Siri with your health data and extended fitness data, you need an iPhone with iOS 17.2 (beta 3 or later) or an Apple Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2 with watchOS 10.2 (beta 3 or later).
Only the latest watches are supported because they support on-device Siri processing, while older Apple Watches do not. Apple is not comfortable sending your requests for health information or logging health information over the Internet so that your orders can be processed. If you have an iPhone with an A12 Bionic or newer (essentially anything from the last five years), your phone has been handling some Siri requests on the device since iOS 15.
You also need to enable Siri access to your health data. You’ll be asked to do it the first time you submit a Health Request, but if you want to do it sooner or if you forget, here are the steps:
Open Settings > Health > Data access and devices > Siri and flip the switch labeled “Health Data Access.”
On your Apple Watch, open Settings > Health > Apps and services > Siri and flip the switch labeled “Allow Siri Access to Health Data.”
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What you can do with Siri Health access
Once access is granted, you can use Siri to request all kinds of health and fitness data that you weren’t able to before. Here are some examples:
- How many steps did I take today?
- How many steps did I take this week?
- What is my heart rate?
- What is the oxygen level in my blood?
- Check out my practice ring.
- What does my Move ring look like today?
- What is my average running heart rate?
- How many calories have I burned?
Your Apple Watch has a cache of health data that is about a week old, so you can only request data from that time period. Your iPhone has all your health data and can answer questions like “What was my weight on January 1?”
You can also log data directly into your Health app, which can be a huge time saver. Here are just a few examples of the many supported logging capabilities:
- My weight is 195.3 pounds.
- I started spotting today.
- I took my 6pm meds.
- My body temperature is 98.5 degrees.
- My period started today.
- My blood sugar is 143.
- Record my blood pressure as 118 over 76.
The ability to log general health data with a quick Siri command instead of digging several layers into the Health app should be a big time saver.
