A year ago, Apple unleashed its first fitness tracking app onto the world. "Health," the iPhone app that makes use of the HealthKit platform, was able to track your weight, steps, blood glucose, and even your inhaler use. It could be used for almost every metric a human might think of — if you forget, as Apple did, that some humans menstruate fairly regularly. Now Apple is changing that; it's introducing reproductive health for everyone.
HealthKit period tracker – it’s almost as if Apple just realized that women exist. #WWDC15 pic.twitter.com/NuJGy7cGJW
— Tony Webster (@webster) June 8, 2015
We don't know yet how Apple will go about that. The app will likely track period frequency, and flow also seems to appear in the brief screenshot that flashed on screen. But what about cramps and fertility? Will it be able to alert users about an upcoming period? That news may have to wait for iOS 9's release this fall. For now, all we know is that period tracking is coming, and it's about time.