iOS 26.4 beta suggests Apple hasn’t given up on its AI health coach

Apple had long been rumored to be introducing a new service known as “Apple Health+,” but a recent report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggested the company may have scrapped the idea. But it turns out that iOS 26.4 suggests that the story isn’t over yet.

The first developer beta of iOS 26.4, released this week, includes references in the code to “Health Coaching” and “Health Plans.” While there’s no user-facing feature yet, the terminology strongly aligns with previous reports about Apple working on an AI-driven health subscription service.

Apple’s rumored AI Health Coach hinted at in iOS 26.4 beta

Last fall, Gurman reported that Apple was developing a paid “Health+” subscription service that would include an AI health coach designed to offer personalized recommendations based on data collected by the Health app and Apple Watch.

More recently, however, Gurman reported that Apple had scaled back plans to launch the feature as originally envisioned, possibly scrapping the service’s major components and merging other parts into the existing Health app.

But why are these references in the iOS 26.4 code if Apple has allegedly scrapped the idea? There are two likely explanations here.

The first is the simplest: these strings could just be leftover bits of code that weren’t deleted. Apple often experiments with features internally, and it’s not unusual for abandoned projects to leave traces in early beta builds. If the company really did decide to shelve its new project, these references in the iOS 26.4 code could simply be remnants of what would have been Apple Health+.

But it’s equally possible Apple hasn’t fully abandoned the idea. The company may have simply delayed it while it continues to work on more pressing features, including the new Siri. The presence of “Health Coaching” and “Health Plans” inside a current beta suggests that some level of development has continued, at least at the framework level.

An internal build of iOS 26 seen by Macworld already had references to a refreshed Health app. Perhaps the feature ended up being postponed to iOS 26.5 or even iOS 27.

There’s still a chance for Apple Health+

Regardless of whether Apple scrapped Health+ or not, what we found in iOS 26.4 beta is noteworthy because it essentially confirms that the AI Health Coach project did exist at some point. Rumors can sometimes sound abstract, but they gain traction when Apple’s own code corroborates them.

Given Apple’s broader push into on-device AI and Apple Intelligence features across iOS 26, a health-focused AI assistant would make strategic sense. Health data is one of Apple’s strongest ecosystem advantages, especially when paired with Apple Watch.

Whether “Health Coaching” becomes a paid subscription, a built-in feature, or something else entirely remains to be seen.