The Cupertino company has a really good Health application, which is filled to the brim with various activity monitors and a summary of the collected data. However, from the beginning of its existence, there was also a hole in it, namely the lack of dedicated functions for mental health. The gap is filled by third-party applications, but in the era of awareness about mental health and social sensitivity, the lack of native functions simply aroused insufficiency.

However, the April rumours came true – Apple added not even five cents, but a few dollars to the initiative, enriching the latest releases of the iPhone and Apple Watch operating systems with mental health monitors, and the health application itself will go to iPads. There was also a surprise because Tim Cook also wants to take care of our eyesight.

Health for Mental Health app. Apple Adds New Features to Mobile Devices

Part of the WWDC presentation devoted to health in the Apple ecosystem opened with quotes from American experts in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, according to which self-awareness about one’s own problems and the ability to name emotions is crucial not only in therapy but above all in maintaining mental well-being.

With the new features of the Health app on iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 and the Mindfulness app on watchOS 10, users can get a better idea of their emotional state. They will also be able to determine the mood on a scale from very good to very bad. They can then choose the factors that influence their emotions, such as work or hobbies, and describe their feelings using words that accurately describe the emotions they feel, such as joy or sadness.

The application will save the information and share it in the form of a summary of the last few days or months. It will combine not only mental health information but also other information collected by the rest of the Health app’s features.

According to Apple, the summary can be generated in the form of a print-ready PDF document and given to a doctor or therapist.

Can the screen take care of your eyesight? Apple says yes

Apple also looked into vision problems that have affected an increasing percentage of society in recent years. According to the guidelines of the International Myopia Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to research and education in myopia, children should be in natural daylight for at least 80-120 minutes a day to maintain healthy eyesight.

Apple Watch with the newly announced watchOS 10 allows you to monitor the time of exposure to daylight using an ambient light sensor. You can see your outdoor time in the Health app on iOS 17 and iPadOS 17. Children who don’t have their own Apple smartphones can connect their Apple Watch to a parent’s iPhone using Family Setup and share information about how much time they spend outdoors with adults using Health Data Sharing.

In addition, Apple took five minutes to add a small but useful feature to counteract visual degradation using Apple devices. Looking at an object that is too close to the eyes, such as a device or a book, is also scientifically recognized as a risk factor for myopia.

The new Screen Distance feature uses the TrueDepth camera, which uses Face ID on iPhone and iPad to send users notifications suggesting that they move the device held for extended periods of time at a distance of fewer than 30 centimetres from the face.