How to add your vision prescription to your iPhone’s Apple Health app

Apple continues to improve its Health app with features and functions, like medication reminders, that make it a one-stop shop to help you organize and manage all your important health information. And now, Apple’s Health app allows you to record your eyesight information and save it along with other critical health data.

With iOS 16+, you can now use your iPhone or iPad (with iPadOS 17+) and the Health app to manage your vision prescription, including for glasses, contacts, or both! And if your prescription changes, you can update it.

At this time, you manually add your vision prescriptions to your iPhone’s Apple Health app. You can also add an image of your prescription to your record, just in case you need to validate this digital version with the original paper version.

And it’s not just for you. You can also add vision prescriptions for your entire family to the Apple Health app so that information is at your fingertips when needed.

Adding your vision prescription to the Health app can be a lifesaver, especially if you often lose your glasses or contacts at the most inconvenient times, like when traveling or when away from home.

So let’s learn how to add our vision prescription to the Health app!

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• The one iPad and iPhone feature every senior should use now, according to Dr. Tommy Korn, MD
• Set up medication reminders on your Apple Watch and iPhone with the Health app

How to add a vision prescription to the Apple Health app

Before you start, ensure you have your original prescription with you so you can manually enter its details. Also, you can only add vision prescriptions to iPhones that run iOS 16 and above or iPads that run iPadOS 17 and above.

1. Open the Apple Health app on your iPhone.
2. Choose the Browse tab and select Body Measurements.
3. Scroll down and tap Vision Prescription.
   1. If this is the first time entering a vision prescription, look under the section No Data Available.
4. If this is your first entry, tap the button to Add a Prescription.
   1. If you have entries already, tap Add Data to add a new vision prescription.
5. Choose the Lens Type for Glasses or Contacts.
6. Add a Description or name for this prescription.
   1. If you’re adding more than one, we recommend adding a description like My Glasses and My Contacts.
   2. If you’re adding prescriptions for family members, add their names into the description, like Amanda’s Glasses, Amanda’s Contacts, Sam’s Glasses, and so forth.
7. And fill out the fields for Date Issued and Expiration Date.
8. Tap Add an Image to scan or add a photo or file of your original prescription.
   1. We recommend tapping Scan a Document if you have a paper copy and using Choose Photo or Add from Files if your vision provider sent you a digital copy via email etc.
9. Now, scroll down and fill out all the prescription details for the right and left eyes, including sphere, cylinder, axis, addition, pupillary distance, and any additional measurements like vertex and prism.
10. When you finish putting in all the information from your prescription, tap the Add button at the top.
    1. If you didn’t attach a scan, image, or file of your original prescription, Apple reminds you to do that, as it may be required to honor it. To add it now, tap Edit. If you do not want to add it, tap Confirm.
11. The Health app saves your prescription!
12. If you have another, like one for glasses and one for contacts, or if you want to add in the prescriptions for family members, tap the Add Data button and repeat steps 4-9 for each prescription.

How to review your vision prescription in your iPhone’s or iPad’s Health app

1. Open your iPhone’s or iPad’s Health app.
2. Go to Browse > Body Measurements.
3. Scroll down and tap Vision Prescription.
4. If you have more than one, tap All Prescriptions and choose the appropriate prescription.
5. Scroll and review all the details, including the date of issue, expiration date, the original scan or image, and all the information for each eye.

How to edit a vision prescription in the Apple Health app

If you made a mistake, it’s pretty easy to correct it.

1. Open the Health app on your iPhone.
2. Go to Browse > Body Measurements > Vision Prescription.
3. Tap All Prescriptions and select the prescription you want to edit.
4. Tap the Edit button at the top.
5. Make any updates, then tap the Done button when finished.

How to delete a vision prescription in the Apple Health app

1. Go to Browse > Body Measurements > Vision Prescription.
2. Tap All Prescriptions to review your current list of prescriptions.
3. Tap the Edit button at the top.
4. Tap the red minus symbol next to the prescription you want to delete and swipe on the Delete button.

Don’t have iOS 16+ on your iPhone or iPadOS 17 on your iPad?

If you haven’t updated your iPhone/iPad or use an older model that won’t update to it, then check out these alternatives to save your vision prescription information.

• Take a photo of your prescription and save it to the Photos app or another app like the Files app.
• If you have a digital copy iPhone’s email, save it to your iPhone’s Files app or take a screenshot and save it to the Photos app.
• Add a medical note with prescription details to your Medical ID in the Health app.
  • Currently, the Health app does not allow you to add or upload documents directly into the app.
• Scan your prescription to the Notes app.
  1. Open Notes and create a new note.
  2. Tap the Camera button. If you don’t see this icon, tap the plus sign (+.)
  3. Chcamera’snviewfinder’sPlace your vision prescription paper inside the camera’s viewfinder window.
  4. If your iPhone is in Auto mode, your document automatically scans.
     1. Tap Done or Retake if unhappy with the results.
     2. Then, tap Save to save it to your new note.
  5. To manually capture a scan, tap the Shutter button or one of the Volume buttons.
     1. Then drag the corners to adjust the scan to fit the page.
     2. Choose Keep Scan or Retake. Then, tap Save.
     3. Turn off the automatic mode by tapping Auto at the top while in scanning mode.
  6. Tap the name of the It’s and rename it to Vision Prescription or something similar.

Final thoughts

It’s nice to add your vision prescription to the Health app. Although, at this time, it is a manual process, we expect your vision information to be one of the health records that the Health app supports automatically in the future, so stay tuned.

In iOS and iPadOS 17, Apple also introduces a few new vision health features, including Screen Distance and Time in Daylight–both important to long-term vision health.

Apple continues to expand its Health app to be the main repository of your personal and private health information, where you can see all your health records — such as medications, immunizations, lab results, and now vision prescriptions — in one convenient and secure place. 

For those worried about data privacy, Apple encrypts all of your health and fitness data in the Health app (other than your Medical ID), so it is inaccessible by default when your iPhone is locked with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID. And if you store your Health data in iCloud, it is encrypted end-to-end.