health

Health

Enables reading and writing health data from/to Apple Health and Google Health Connect.

NOTE: Google has deprecated the Google Fit API. According to the documentation, as of May 1st 2024 developers cannot sign up for using the API. As such, this package has removed support for Google Fit as of version 11.0.0 and users are urged to upgrade as soon as possible.

The plugin supports:

• handling permissions to access health data using the hasPermissions, requestAuthorization, revokePermissions methods.
• reading health data using the getHealthDataFromTypes method.
• writing health data using the writeHealthData method.
• writing workouts using the writeWorkout method.
• writing meals on iOS (Apple Health) & Android using the writeMeal method.
• writing audiograms on iOS using the writeAudiogram method.
• writing blood pressure data using the writeBloodPressure method.
• accessing total step counts using the getTotalStepsInInterval method.
• cleaning up duplicate data points via the removeDuplicates method.
• removing data of a given type in a selected period of time using the delete method.

Note that for Android, the target phone needs to have the Health Connect app installed (which is currently in beta) and have access to the internet.

See the tables below for supported health and workout data types.

Setup

Apple Health (iOS)

First, add the following 2 entries to the Info.plist:

<key>NSHealthShareUsageDescription</key>
<string>We will sync your data with the Apple Health app to give you better insights</string>
<key>NSHealthUpdateUsageDescription</key>
<string>We will sync your data with the Apple Health app to give you better insights</string>

Then, open your Flutter project in Xcode by right clicking on the "ios" folder and selecting "Open in Xcode". Next, enable "HealthKit" by adding a capability inside the "Signing & Capabilities" tab of the Runner target's settings.

Google Health Connect (Android)

Health Connect requires the following lines in the AndroidManifest.xml file (see also the example app):

<!-- Check whether Health Connect is installed or not -->
<queries>
  <package android:name="com.google.android.apps.healthdata" />
  <intent>
    <action android:name="androidx.health.ACTION_SHOW_PERMISSIONS_RATIONALE" />
  </intent>
</queries>

In the Health Connect permissions activity there is a link to your privacy policy. You need to grant the Health Connect app access in order to link back to your privacy policy. In the example below, you should either replace .MainActivity with an activity that presents the privacy policy or have the Main Activity route the user to the policy. This step may be required to pass Google app review when requesting access to sensitive permissions.

<activity-alias
     android:name="ViewPermissionUsageActivity"
     android:exported="true"
     android:targetActivity=".MainActivity"
     android:permission="android.permission.START_VIEW_PERMISSION_USAGE">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW_PERMISSION_USAGE" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.HEALTH_PERMISSIONS" />
        </intent-filter>
</activity-alias>

For each data type you want to access, the READ and WRITE permissions need to be added to the AndroidManifest.xml file. The list of permissions can be found here on the data types page.

An example of asking for permission to read and write heart rate data is shown below and more examples can also be found in the example app.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.health.READ_HEART_RATE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.health.WRITE_HEART_RATE"/>

Accessing fitness data (e.g. Steps) requires permission to access the "Activity Recognition" API. To set it add the following line to your AndroidManifest.xml file.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION"/>

Additionally, for workouts, if the distance of a workout is requested then the location permissions below are needed.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>

Because this is labeled as a dangerous protection level, the permission system will not grant it automatically and it requires the user's action. You can prompt the user for it using the permission_handler plugin. Follow the plugin setup instructions and add the following line before requesting the data:

await Permission.activityRecognition.request();
await Permission.location.request();

Finally, an intent-filter needs to be added to the .MainActivity activity.

<activity
  android:name=".MainActivity"
  android:exported="true"

  ....

  <!-- Intention to show Permissions screen for Health Connect API -->
  <intent-filter>
    <action android:name="androidx.health.ACTION_SHOW_PERMISSIONS_RATIONALE" />
  </intent-filter>
</activity>

There's a debug, main and profile version which are chosen depending on how you start your app. In general, it's sufficient to add permission only to the main version.

Android 14

This plugin uses the new registerForActivityResult when requesting permissions from Health Connect. In order for that to work, the Main app's activity should extend FlutterFragmentActivity instead of FlutterActivity. This adjustment allows casting from Activity to ComponentActivity for accessing registerForActivityResult.

In your MainActivity.kt file, update the MainActivity class so that it extends FlutterFragmentActivity instead of the default FlutterActivity:

...
import io.flutter.embedding.android.FlutterFragmentActivity
...

class MainActivity: FlutterFragmentActivity() {
...
}

Android X

Replace the content of the android/gradle.properties file with the following lines:

org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1536M
android.enableJetifier=true
android.useAndroidX=true

Usage

See the example app for detailed examples of how to use the Health API.

The Health plugin is used via the Health() singleton using the different methods for handling permissions and getting and adding data to Apple Health or Google Health Connect. Below is a simplified flow of how to use the plugin.

  // configure the health plugin before use.
  Health().configure();


  // define the types to get
  var types = [
    HealthDataType.STEPS,
    HealthDataType.BLOOD_GLUCOSE,
  ];

  // requesting access to the data types before reading them
  bool requested = await Health().requestAuthorization(types);

  var now = DateTime.now();

  // fetch health data from the last 24 hours
  List<HealthDataPoint> healthData = await Health().getHealthDataFromTypes(
     now.subtract(Duration(days: 1)), now, types);

  // request permissions to write steps and blood glucose
  types = [HealthDataType.STEPS, HealthDataType.BLOOD_GLUCOSE];
  var permissions = [
      HealthDataAccess.READ_WRITE,
      HealthDataAccess.READ_WRITE
  ];
  await Health().requestAuthorization(types, permissions: permissions);

  // write steps and blood glucose
  bool success = await Health().writeHealthData(10, HealthDataType.STEPS, now, now);
  success = await Health().writeHealthData(3.1, HealthDataType.BLOOD_GLUCOSE, now, now);

  // you can also specify the recording method to store in the metadata (default is RecordingMethod.automatic)
  // on iOS only `RecordingMethod.automatic` and `RecordingMethod.manual` are supported
  // Android additionally supports `RecordingMethod.active` and `RecordingMethod.unknown`
  success &= await Health().writeHealthData(10, HealthDataType.STEPS, now, now, recordingMethod: RecordingMethod.manual);

  // get the number of steps for today
  var midnight = DateTime(now.year, now.month, now.day);
  int? steps = await Health().getTotalStepsInInterval(midnight, now);

Health Data

A HealthDataPoint object contains the following data fields:

String uuid;
HealthValue value;
HealthDataType type;
HealthDataUnit unit;
DateTime dateFrom;
DateTime dateTo;
HealthPlatformType sourcePlatform;
String sourceDeviceId;
String sourceId;
String sourceName;
RecordingMethod recordingMethod;
WorkoutSummary? workoutSummary;

where a HealthValue can be any type of AudiogramHealthValue, ElectrocardiogramHealthValue, ElectrocardiogramVoltageValue, NumericHealthValue, NutritionHealthValue, or WorkoutHealthValue.

A HealthDataPoint object can be serialized to and from JSON using the toJson() and fromJson() methods. JSON serialization is using camel_case notation. Null values are not serialized. For example;

{
  "value": {
    "__type": "NumericHealthValue",
    "numeric_value": 141.0
  },
  "type": "STEPS",
  "unit": "COUNT",
  "date_from": "2024-04-03T10:06:57.736",
  "date_to": "2024-04-03T10:12:51.724",
  "source_platform": "appleHealth",
  "source_device_id": "F74938B9-C011-4DE4-AA5E-CF41B60B96E7",
  "source_id": "com.apple.health.81AE7156-EC05-47E3-AC93-2D6F65C717DF",
  "source_name": "iPhone12.bardram.net",
  "recording_method": 3
  "value": {
    "__type": "NumericHealthValue",
    "numeric_value": 141.0
  },
  "type": "STEPS",
  "unit": "COUNT",
  "date_from": "2024-04-03T10:06:57.736",
  "date_to": "2024-04-03T10:12:51.724",
  "source_platform": "appleHealth",
  "source_device_id": "F74938B9-C011-4DE4-AA5E-CF41B60B96E7",
  "source_id": "com.apple.health.81AE7156-EC05-47E3-AC93-2D6F65C717DF",
  "source_name": "iPhone12.bardram.net",
  "recording_method": 2
}

Fetch health data

See the example app for a showcasing of how it's done.

Note On iOS the device must be unlocked before health data can be requested. Otherwise an error will be thrown:

flutter: Health Plugin Error:
flutter:  PlatformException(FlutterHealth, Results are null, Optional(Error Domain=com.apple.healthkit Code=6 "Protected health data is inaccessible" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Protected health data is inaccessible}))

Filtering by recording method

Google Health Connect and Apple HealthKit both provide ways to distinguish samples collected "automatically" and manually entered data by the user.

• Android provides an enum with 4 variations: https://developer.android.com/reference/kotlin/androidx/health/connect/client/records/metadata/Metadata#summary
• iOS has a boolean value: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/healthkit/hkmetadatakeywasuserentered

As such, when fetching data you have the option to filter the fetched data by recording method as such:

List<HealthDataPoint> healthData = await Health().getHealthDataFromTypes(
  types: types,
  startTime: yesterday,
  endTime: now,
  recordingMethodsToFilter: [RecordingMethod.manual, RecordingMethod.unknown],
);

Note that for this to work, the information needs to have been provided when writing the data to Health Connect or Apple Health. For example, steps added manually through the Apple Health App will set HKWasUserEntered to true (corresponding to RecordingMethod.manual), however it seems that adding steps manually to Google Fit does not write the data with the RecordingMethod.manual in the metadata, instead it shows up as RecordingMethod.unknown. This is an open issue, and as such filtering manual entries when querying step count on Android with getTotalStepsInInterval(includeManualEntries: false) does not necessarily filter out manual steps.

NOTE: On iOS, you can only filter by RecordingMethod.automatic and RecordingMethod.manual as it is stored HKMetadataKeyWasUserEntered is a boolean value in the metadata.

Filtering out duplicates

If the same data is requested multiple times and saved in the same array duplicates will occur.

A single data point can be compared to each other with the == operator, i.e.

HealthDataPoint p1 = ...;
HealthDataPoint p2 = ...;
bool same = p1 == p2;

If you have a list of data points, duplicates can be removed with:

List<HealthDataPoint> points = ...;
points = Health().removeDuplicates(points);

Data Types

The plugin supports the following HealthDataType.

Data Type	Unit	Apple Health	Google Health Connect	Comments
ACTIVE_ENERGY_BURNED	CALORIES	yes	yes
ATRIAL_FIBRILLATION_BURDEN	PERCENTAGE	yes
BASAL_ENERGY_BURNED	CALORIES	yes	yes
BLOOD_GLUCOSE	MILLIGRAM_PER_DECILITER	yes	yes
BLOOD_OXYGEN	PERCENTAGE	yes	yes
BLOOD_PRESSURE_DIASTOLIC	MILLIMETER_OF_MERCURY	yes	yes
BLOOD_PRESSURE_SYSTOLIC	MILLIMETER_OF_MERCURY	yes	yes
BODY_FAT_PERCENTAGE	PERCENTAGE	yes	yes
BODY_MASS_INDEX	NO_UNIT	yes	yes
BODY_TEMPERATURE	DEGREE_CELSIUS	yes	yes
BODY_WATER_MASS	KILOGRAMS		yes
ELECTRODERMAL_ACTIVITY	SIEMENS	yes
HEART_RATE	BEATS_PER_MINUTE	yes	yes
HEIGHT	METERS	yes	yes
RESTING_HEART_RATE	BEATS_PER_MINUTE	yes	yes
RESPIRATORY_RATE	RESPIRATIONS_PER_MINUTE	yes	yes
PERIPHERAL_PERFUSION_INDEX	PERCENTAGE	yes
STEPS	COUNT	yes	yes
WAIST_CIRCUMFERENCE	METERS	yes
WALKING_HEART_RATE	BEATS_PER_MINUTE	yes
WEIGHT	KILOGRAMS	yes	yes
DISTANCE_WALKING_RUNNING	METERS	yes
FLIGHTS_CLIMBED	COUNT	yes	yes
DISTANCE_DELTA	METERS		yes
MINDFULNESS	MINUTES	yes
SLEEP_ASLEEP	MINUTES	yes	yes	on iOS, this refers to asleepUnspecified, and on Android this refers to STAGE_TYPE_SLEEPING (asleep but specific stage is unknown)
SLEEP_AWAKE	MINUTES	yes	yes
SLEEP_AWAKE_IN_BED	MINUTES		yes
SLEEP_DEEP	MINUTES	yes	yes
SLEEP_IN_BED	MINUTES	yes
SLEEP_LIGHT	MINUTES	yes	yes	on iOS, this refers to asleepCore
SLEEP_OUT_OF_BED	MINUTES		yes
SLEEP_REM	MINUTES	yes	yes
SLEEP_UNKNOWN	MINUTES		yes
SLEEP_SESSION	MINUTES		yes
WATER	LITER	yes	yes
EXERCISE_TIME	MINUTES	yes
WORKOUT	NO_UNIT	yes	yes	See table below
HIGH_HEART_RATE_EVENT	NO_UNIT	yes		Requires Apple Watch to write the data
LOW_HEART_RATE_EVENT	NO_UNIT	yes		Requires Apple Watch to write the data
IRREGULAR_HEART_RATE_EVENT	NO_UNIT	yes		Requires Apple Watch to write the data
HEART_RATE_VARIABILITY_RMSSD	MILLISECONDS		yes
HEART_RATE_VARIABILITY_SDNN	MILLISECONDS	yes		Requires Apple Watch to write the data
HEADACHE_NOT_PRESENT	MINUTES	yes
HEADACHE_MILD	MINUTES	yes
HEADACHE_MODERATE	MINUTES	yes
HEADACHE_SEVERE	MINUTES	yes
HEADACHE_UNSPECIFIED	MINUTES	yes
AUDIOGRAM	DECIBEL_HEARING_LEVEL	yes
ELECTROCARDIOGRAM	VOLT	yes		Requires Apple Watch to write the data
NUTRITION	NO_UNIT	yes	yes
INSULIN_DELIVERY	INTERNATIONAL_UNIT	yes

Workout Types

The plugin supports the following HealthWorkoutActivityType.

Workout Type	Apple Health	Google Health Connect	Comments
AMERICAN_FOOTBALL	yes	yes
ARCHERY	yes
AUSTRALIAN_FOOTBALL	yes	yes
BADMINTON	yes	yes
BARRE	yes
BASEBALL	yes	yes
BASKETBALL	yes	yes
BIKING	yes	yes	on iOS this is CYCLING, but name changed here to fit with Android
BOWLING	yes
BOXING	yes	yes
CALISTHENICS		yes
CARDIO_DANCE	yes	(yes)	on Android this will be stored as DANCING
CLIMBING	yes
COOLDOWN	yes
CORE_TRAINING	yes
CRICKET	yes	yes
CROSS_COUNTRY_SKIING	yes	(yes)	on Android this will be stored as SKIING
CROSS_TRAINING	yes
CURLING	yes
DANCING	yes	yes	on iOS this is DANCE, but name changed here to fit with Android
DISC_SPORTS	yes
DOWNHILL_SKIING	yes	(yes)	on Android this will be stored as SKIING
ELLIPTICAL	yes	yes
EQUESTRIAN_SPORTS	yes
FENCING	yes	yes
FISHING	yes
FITNESS_GAMING	yes
FLEXIBILITY	yes
FRISBEE_DISC		yes
FUNCTIONAL_STRENGTH_TRAINING	yes	(yes)	on Android this will be stored as STRENGTH_TRAINING
GOLF	yes	yes
GUIDED_BREATHING		yes
GYMNASTICS	yes	yes
HAND_CYCLING	yes
HANDBALL	yes	yes
HIGH_INTENSITY_INTERVAL_TRAINING	yes	yes
HIKING	yes	yes
HOCKEY	yes
HUNTING	yes
JUMP_ROPE	yes
KICKBOXING	yes
LACROSSE	yes
MARTIAL_ARTS	yes	yes
MIND_AND_BODY	yes
MIXED_CARDIO	yes
PADDLE_SPORTS	yes
PARAGLIDING		yes
PICKLEBALL	yes
PILATES	yes	yes
PLAY	yes
PREPARATION_AND_RECOVERY	yes
RACQUETBALL	yes	yes
ROCK_CLIMBING	(yes)	yes	on iOS this will be stored as CLIMBING
ROWING	yes	yes
RUGBY	yes	yes
RUNNING	yes	yes
RUNNING_TREADMILL	(yes)	yes	on iOS this will be stored as RUNNING
SAILING	yes	yes
SCUBA_DIVING		yes
SKATING	yes	yes	On iOS this will be stored as SKATING_SPORTS
SKIING	(yes)	yes	on iOS you have to choose between CROSS_COUNTRY_SKIING and DOWNHILL_SKIING
SNOW_SPORTS	yes
SNOWBOARDING	yes	yes
SOCCER	yes
SOCIAL_DANCE	yes	(yes)	on Android this will be stored as DANCING
SOFTBALL	yes	yes
SQUASH	yes	yes
STAIR_CLIMBING	yes	yes
STAIR_CLIMBING_MACHINE		yes
STAIRS	yes
STEP_TRAINING	yes
STRENGTH_TRAINING	(yes)	yes	on iOS you have to choose between FUNCTIONAL_STRENGTH_TRAINING or TRADITIONAL_STRENGTH_TRAINING
SURFING	yes	yes	on iOS this is SURFING_SPORTS, but name changed here to fit with Android
SWIMMING	yes	(yes)	on Android you have to choose between SWIMMING_OPEN_WATER and SWIMMING_POOL
SWIMMING_OPEN_WATER	(yes)	yes	on iOS this will be stored as SWIMMING
SWIMMING_POOL	(yes)	yes	on iOS this will be stored as SWIMMING
TABLE_TENNIS	yes	yes
TAI_CHI	yes
TENNIS	yes	yes
TRACK_AND_FIELD	yes
TRADITIONAL_STRENGTH_TRAINING	yes	(yes)	on Android this will be stored as STRENGTH_TRAINING
VOLLEYBALL	yes	yes
WALKING	yes	yes
WATER_FITNESS	yes
WATER_POLO	yes	yes
WATER_SPORTS	yes
WEIGHTLIFTING		yes
WHEELCHAIR	(yes)	yes	on iOS you have to choose between WHEELCHAIR_RUN_PACE or WHEELCHAIR_WALK_PACE
WHEELCHAIR_RUN_PACE	yes	(yes)	on Android this will be stored as WHEELCHAIR
WHEELCHAIR_WALK_PACE	yes	(yes)	on Android this will be stored as WHEELCHAIR
WRESTLING	yes
YOGA	yes	yes
OTHER	yes	yes

License

This software is copyright (c) the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and is part of the Copenhagen Research Platform. This software is available 'as-is' under a MIT license.