(Image credit: Apple)

Apple’s been banging on about health for years now, with Tim Cook repeatedly hinting it’ll be one of the company’s biggest long-term contributions.

And if the latest report is anything to go by, the firm's Health app is about to get its biggest shake-up in a while.

According to Macworld, Apple is planning a redesigned Health app as part of iOS 26.4, due later this year.

Design shake-up

The update is rumoured to bring multiple “major upgrades”, including a new layout for categories and simplified metric logging, which sounds like Apple finally admitting the Health app is powerful, but also a bit of a mess if you actually want to use it properly.

If the leaks are true, the biggest change will be a simplified app design, with a refreshed layout that makes categories easier to navigate and logging less fiddly. We don’t know exactly what it’ll look like yet, but the direction makes sense.

The Health app has become the hub for everything from sleep and steps to medication reminders, cycle tracking and more in recent years, but it’s starting to feel like it needs a bit of a clean-up.

Bigger ambitions

What Apple might bolt onto the refreshed interface sounds like the more interesting potential news here.

Bloomberg has previously reported Apple is working on proper food tracking, which would be a big move considering the company has mostly tiptoed around calories and meal logging so far. If it lands, it would throw Apple into the same ring as apps like MyFitnessPal and Noom, only with the advantage of being built into iPhone from day one.

There’s also talk of a new library of health-focused videos, essentially a doctor-led sibling to Fitness+. The idea, if true, is that the Health app could serve up relevant guidance from experts like sleep specialists, nutritionists or cardiologists if your data starts trending badly.

The reports also suggest Apple is working on an AI health agent that can pull from your Health data and give personalised recommendations, plus potentially offer form tips using your iPhone camera during workouts.

(Image credit: Apple)

If even half of these rumoured features make it into iOS 26.4, it could be one of the most meaningful Health app updates in a long time, once it reaches us.

If things stay on schedule, iOS 26.4 could hit beta as soon as next month, with a public release tipped for sometime in spring. But who's counting?