Well, count yourself lucky that you don't find this feature useful, my friend. But those of us with degenerative movement disorders (like Parkinsons Disease) would, in fact, find this quite helpful to record.
That said - I have never gotten the "Walking Asymmetry" feature to work on my iPhone 6S Plus (currently on iOS 14), because there is no "set up" button to tap. The feature is listed in the Health App under Mobility, but there's no obvious way to set it up. So, can someone guide me thru how you got yours to work?
Unfortunately, I'm someone who would find this quite useful to track.
If I can't get it working on my 6S Plus, I'm considering upgrading to iPhone 8 or above to take advantage of the new "Walking Stability" metric in iOS 15 (assuming that I get confirmation that it actually functions). But I'd rather stay with the phone I have, if at all possible.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
This
Apple paper describes the rationale and development of iOS Mobility Metrics and specifically refers to them using motion sensors built into iPhone 8 and later, so it would appear that your 6S Plus is not going to do what you now want of it. Hope that's not a big blow, but it is a 2015 model and I assume has given you give sterling service.
I can answer your question about the Walking Steadiness metric. In short, yes it works.
In long, I don't have any diagnosed movement disorders, but I've long been aware that my balance and walking stability were poor. By poor walking stability I mean an inability to walk in a straight line, leading to a fear I might appear to be the worse for drink - I don't drink, BTW, and never have done. This is not something serious enough that I would want any sort of medical intervention but it was troubling to me. So, when I noticed my poor scores in the iOS Health app I decided to try to improve things by walking a lot more, in the possibly unscientific belief that strengthening the muscles involved in walking would make me better at it. I bought a treadmill to avoid the winter weather and other outdoor inconveniences, and I set to with three workouts per day. Two months later, during which I've turned 74, I think the medicine is working, as reflected by my iOS Walking Steadiness graph climbing into the high OK region; a numeric figure is not given.
To the best of my recollection the Walking Steadiness metric does not have to be specifically enabled.
Another iOS 15 metric, Fall Risk, is derived from the other Mobility Metrics and does have to be specifically enabled, after which an algorithm assesses the metrics over a period of time I recall to be a couple weeks before giving a result. It shows my risk of a fall in the next 12 months as low; I'm pleased about that because I've seen how disastrous falls can be for elderly people. I wear an Apple Watch almost entirely for its Fall Detection feature, I live alone and hopefully (fingers crossed, touch wood) it will summon the cavalry if I hit the deck.
What are all the iOS metrics worth? Any Apple spokesperson would tell you that iPhone is not a medical device, that's fair enough. I find the metrics a useful guide, I value the info they give me and I know of no other way that data would be available to me.
I hope some of the above is useful.
- my walking asymmetry as shown in Health app has declined to 0%. This would be brilliant if correct but it can’t be, not only am I a human of 73 years but recently I’ve had a hip injury/strain/whatever and have been limping somewhat.