HealthLog for iOS is on the App Store

[MBombeck]

The iOS app has been approved and is live on the App Store, listed as HealthLog Companion App. If you have been waiting for a proper iPhone surface for your self-hosted HealthLog server, with Apple Health sync and medication reminders that actually fire, this is it.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6769501341
TestFlight, free, always the newest build: https://testflight.apple.com/join/bucuTBpa

What the app adds

The server has never been able to reach the phone, and that is where most health data is born. The app closes that gap:

• Apple Health, both ways. Steps, heart rate, sleep, weight and the rest flow into your own Postgres, and what you log on the server flows back. An external-identity scheme keeps the two from echoing each other into duplicates.
• Medication reminders that reach you. Schedules including weekly and cyclic regimens, Live Activities for a dose that is due, and notification buttons that mark an intake without opening the app.
• Capture in seconds. One sheet for every metric the server tracks, without opening a laptop.
• Watch app, widgets and Shortcuts. Complications, lock-screen widgets, and "Did I take my medication?" as a Shortcut.
• Insights and the Coach on the phone. On Apple-Intelligence-capable iPhones the Coach runs entirely on device, so no prompt leaves it. Otherwise you bring your own provider key and the requests go straight from your phone to your provider.
• Standalone mode. No server yet? Run the app on its own and connect it to your instance later.

There is no built-in backend, no default host, and no account with me. Health data syncs to the server you choose. If you enable an external AI provider, the health context you consent to share also goes to that provider.

How it got here

This took longer than I thought it would, and it was harder than I thought it would be. Writing the app was not the difficult part. Keeping it in step with HealthLog was.

The server did not stand still while the app was being built. Features kept landing, the API kept growing, and every one of those changes had a second side that had to be designed, implemented and shipped through review on a completely different release cycle. Two moving targets, tied together by a contract that both sides have to honour on the same day. That is where the grey hairs came from.

A lot of what made it work came from the people running the TestFlight builds. You found the things that only show up on real phones with real data, and you kept reporting them. Thank you. That is a large part of why the app is in a state where I dare to put it in front of strangers.

About the price

The app costs 1.99 USD, or whatever Apple charges for that tier where you are, and I want to be straight about why.

I am not trying to earn money with HealthLog. That has never been the point, and the server stays what it is: free, self-hosted, yours. What the price covers is the fixed cost of being an Apple developer at all, which is a yearly fee that exists whether anyone installs the app or not. If enough of you pick it up, that bill is paid and the thing sustains itself.

So if that is easy for you, buying it helps.

And if it is not, that is completely fine. Nobody should feel pushed into paying for this. Write me an email and I will send you a code for a free copy, no explanation needed, no awkward questions. That offer is not a gesture, I mean it: I would much rather you use the app than pay for it.

Email for a free code: marc@healthlog.dev

There are also two routes that stay free for everyone, permanently:

• TestFlight. The public beta carries the newest builds, usually ahead of the App Store, and costs nothing: https://testflight.apple.com/join/bucuTBpa
• Build it yourself. The source is on GitHub and you can put it on your own phone.

What comes next

The app is not finished. Some things are rough, a few are missing, and the server keeps moving, so the app will keep moving with it. Reports are welcome, and they get read. Most of what shipped this month came from someone writing one.

If you have been using HealthLog on a laptop and wondering whether the phone side is worth it: it is the part that turns a tracker you visit into one that is simply there.

• Server: https://github.com/MBombeck/HealthLog
• iOS app: https://github.com/MBombeck/healthlog-iOS
• Docs: https://docs.healthlog.dev
• Live demo: https://demo.healthlog.dev

I also posted this announcement in the server project discussion.