How to track habits, streaks, and Aim with Apple Health

Automatic tracking lets Apple Health become the source of truth for a habit, streak, or Aim. Left reads only the Health categories you approve and turns that data into progress without asking you to log the same activity twice.

Choose Apple Health tracking

1. Open Since and create or edit a habit, streak, or Aim.
2. In Tracking, choose Apple Health instead of Manual.
3. Approve the Health categories that your selected rule needs.

You can also describe what you want to track in natural language on supported devices. Left can suggest a suitable Health metric and rule, which you can review before saving.

Choose a metric and goal

Metrics cover activity, workouts, movement, nutrition, wellbeing, and body measurements. Examples include steps, distance, exercise time, active energy, workouts, sleep, mindful minutes, water, caffeine, body mass, and many other values available in Apple Health.

Choose a unit, comparison, target, and period. Depending on the metric, you can also count only entries above a minimum, count distinct entries, limit data to part of the day, select workout types, or set a target range.

How each tracker updates

• Habits: the period counts as complete when the Health goal is met.
• Streaks: the streak resets if a completed period did not meet the Health goal.
• Aim: progress fills automatically from the selected Health value.

While Apple Health tracking is active, manual progress changes from the app, widgets, or Apple Watch are disabled so the same item cannot have two competing sources of truth.

Permissions, shared items, and privacy

Apple controls every Health permission. If a value is missing, open the Health app or iOS Settings and confirm that Left can read the selected category and that data exists for the period.

For a shared habit or streak, only the owner's iPhone reads Apple Health. Friends receive the resulting completion or reset state, never the owner's raw Health samples, rule details, or Health history.

Switch back to manual tracking

Edit the item and change Tracking back to Manual. Earlier Health-derived history stays in place, while future progress follows the manual controls again. Turning Health tracking on later starts a new automatic tracking period rather than filling the manual interval retroactively.