Health Bridge

Health Bridge provides a unified interface to access and sync health data from users' devices using Apple HealthKit (iOS) and Google Health Connect (Android). The plugin enables you to fetch health metrics such as steps, heart rate, calories, and sleep data - allowing you to build powerful wellness and fitness features in your app.

Why use Health Bridge?

Health Bridge takes care of handling platform-specific details like permissions, data sources, and user consent, so you can focus on delivering value to your users. The plugin abstracts away the complexity of working with different health platforms while maintaining full access to rich health data.

• Unified Interface: Single API that works seamlessly across iOS (Apple HealthKit) and Android (Google Health Connect)
• Platform Handling: Automatically manages platform-specific permissions, data sources, and user consent flows
• Wellness Features: Access comprehensive health metrics including steps, heart rate, calories, sleep, and more
• Data Accessibility: Retrieve historical health data with flexible date ranges and grouping options

Use Cases

Health Bridge is essential for apps that need to:

Before You Start

Prerequisites

• A Median.co app with JavaScript Bridge enabled
• The plugin activated and configured in your app

Key Concepts

The following concepts will help you implement Health Bridge:

Quick Reference: Health Bridge supports 6 main categories of health data to help you build comprehensive wellness features:

• Activity - Track physical movement and exercise metrics (steps, distance, calories, exercise time)
• Body Measurements - Monitor physical characteristics and body composition (height, weight, BMI, body fat, temperature)
• Cycle Tracking - Access menstrual cycle data for reproductive health monitoring
• Nutrition - Track dietary intake and hydration (calorie intake, water intake, nutrition data)
• Sleep - Monitor sleep patterns and duration for recovery and wellness insights
• Vitals - Access critical health indicators (heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, glucose)

Supported Data Types: Health Bridge supports a comprehensive set of health metrics organized by category, all returned in metric units only. Click the icons below to view the complete metric details:

Platform Permissions Model: Permissions work differently on each platform:

• Android: Returns a list of granted and declined data types when requesting permissions
• iOS: Does not return any information about permission status. The OS will prompt the user when data is first requested, and you won't get confirmation about which permissions were granted

Important Considerations

• All health data values are returned in metric units only
• Our team can add support for additional data types if required
• Some data types (like sleep) may only be available for recent timeframes
• Date range limitations vary by platform and data type

Integration Guide

App configuration

Enable the Plugin

1. Navigate to Plugins: In your Median dashboard, go to Native Plugins and select Health Bridge
2. Enable Health Bridge: Toggle Plugin Enabled on
3. Configure the iOS Permission Description: Explain to users why your app needs access to their Health data (see below)
4. Select Android Read Permissions: Enable only the health data types your app uses (see below)
5. Save and Rebuild: Click Save and rebuild your app for the changes to take effect

JavaScript Bridge functions

Follow these steps to start using the Health Bridge plugin in your app:

Step 1 - Request Permissions

Although not required, we recommend calling requestPermissions() upfront as it improves user transparency and experience. This prompts users to grant access to the specific health data types your app will use.

await median.healthBridge.requestPermissions([
  "steps",
  "sleep",
  "calorieIntake",
]);

This method accepts an array of data types and returns an object indicating which permissions were granted or declined.

You can optionally skip requestPermissions() and directly call getData() (next step) and the OS will handle permissions automatically.

Step 2 - Fetch Health Data

After permissions are granted (or requested implicitly), use the getData() method to retrieve health data. You can define the following parameters:

• The specific dataTypes to fetch (from the supported list)
• A startDate and endDate in ISO 8601 format
• An optional bucket to group data (e.g., by day or hour)

Parameters:

Bucket Options:

const result = await median.healthBridge.getData({
  dataTypes: granted, // list of granted permissions from previous step
  startDate: "2025-05-01T00:00:00Z",
  endDate: "2025-05-08T00:00:00Z",
  bucket: "day",
});

console.log(result.data.steps);
// [
//   { timestamp: '2025-05-01T00:00:00Z', value: 8123 },
//   { timestamp: '2025-05-02T00:00:00Z', value: 7890 },
//   ...
// ]

Want to show a daily step chart for the past week? Just fetch steps with bucket: 'day' and map the values to your chart component.

💡Tip: Make sure your date range doesn't exceed platform limitations - some data types (like sleep) may only be available for recent timeframes.

Example response

{
  "data": {
    "height": [
      {
        "start": "2025-12-03T15:30:00.000Z",
        "end": "2025-12-03T15:30:00.000Z",
        "value": 1.87
      }
    ],
    "weight": [],
    "steps": [
      {
        "start": "2025-12-03T15:30:00.000Z",
        "end": "2025-12-03T15:30:00.000Z",
        "value": 5000
      },
      {
        "end": "2025-12-02T15:30:00.000Z",
        "start": "2025-12-02T15:30:00.000Z",
        "value": 4500
      }
    ]
  }
}

Integration testing

Testing on iOS

Step 1 - Install your App

Based on your test setup, you can install the app on a physical device via TestFlight or iOS Binary. If you install the app using TestFlight or iOS Binary the app will come fully built including the necessary capabilities.

Build locally with Xcode

If you want to build and test the app locally on a MacOS system, follow the steps below to build your iOS app from source and add the Health Kit capability.

You can reference the following to confirm that the capability has been added as expected:

Step 2 - Add Test Data

Follow the steps below to add test data to your iOS simulator using the Health app:

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3
Suspend the app and find the 'Health' app on your home screen.	Select a metric and manually add test data using the '+' button	Confirm that your test data has been added in the Health app

Step 3 - Access your data

After adding test data to your account, follow the steps below to access the data through the Health Bridge:

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3
Select the data points, bucket and date range for the request	Confirm the access	Access the returned data in the JSON object