Details on Apple’s iOS health tracking app hint at advanced iWatch features

The iWatch could be a far more advanced health tracker than previously thought.

We’ve been hearing that Apple was developing a health tracking app, dubbed Healthbook, and making health a big focus of its rumored iWatch for months now. But new details on Healthbook published this morning by 9to5Mac give us a much clearer idea of what Apple’s smartwatch could actually offer.

In addition to tracking your steps and food intake, Healthbook reportedly can measure more complicated things like your blood oxygen saturation, breathing rate, and hydration. The M7 processor in the iPhone 5S can track your steps, but there aren’t yet any integrated health tracking devices that can track those more advanced things.

Healthbook, which is expected to launch with iOS 8 later this year, will likely serve as a single place to track all of the data from your fitness gadgets. It wouldn’t be that difficult for companies like Jawbone and Fitbit to share the data from their gadgets and fitness apps with Healthbook, for example. But many people, especially athletes and fitness junkies, would be eager to have access to more advanced data.

Apple has been hiring health and fitness experts over the past year, so it’s clear the company is aiming to make a concerted effort in health technology.