HealthKit includes Bluetooth support
At Apple’s Worldwide Development Conference keynote speech on Monday, the company unveiled a new way that users will be able to record and keep track of all of their health-related information. HealthKit is a platform that will gain data from third-party apps. This will allow users to stay up to date on all of their health records without the need for switching between multiple programs.
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In addition to being able to store and share health data, HealthKit will also have native Bluetooth for various accessories that will be able to connect to iOS 8 devices.
According to 9to5mac, some of the accessories that will have native support by HealthKit include heart rate and blood pressure monitors, health thermometers and glucose sensors. HealthKit will be able to automatically detect and connect to these devices in order to collect the health data without the user ever once having to change a setting in the corresponding third-party app on the phone. This feature will allow device creators to focus solely on their hardware as opposed to hardware and a companion app. HealthKit will be that companion the devices need.
From 9to5mac:
"Apple is also allowing and encouraging manufacturers to build other types of accessories that don’t fall under the natively supported devices above, but those will require an iOS app to implement the HealthKit API. Apple is allowing accessories that use the ExternalAccessory framework, CoreBluetooth, USB, or Wi-Fi, but hasn’t discussed any limitations for HealthKit accessories."
HealthKit will be available this fall when iOS 8 launches worldwide for free to all users.