highHeartRateEvent: HealthKit category type
HKCategoryTypeIdentifierHighHeartRateEvent · read from Apple’s documentation on 2026-10-02
HKCategoryTypeIdentifier.highHeartRateEvent (Objective-C HKCategoryTypeIdentifierHighHeartRateEvent) is a HealthKit category type in Apple's "Vital Signs" group. Apple's abstract: “A category sample type for high heart rate events.” Apple's page names the generic HKCategoryValue for its sample values rather than an enum of its own. Apple states that apps cannot save it: “The high heart rate samples are read-only.” It is available from iOS 12.2 and watchOS 5.2.
What Apple says highHeartRateEvent is
A category sample type for high heart rate events.
Apple’s abstract, quoted from its highHeartRateEvent reference page, read 2026-10-02. Apple’s discussion of the type runs 91 words.
- Swift
HKCategoryTypeIdentifier.highHeartRateEvent- Objective-C
HKCategoryTypeIdentifierHighHeartRateEvent- Family
HKCategoryTypeIdentifier- Apple's topic group
- Vital Signs
- Group page
- Vital signs
- Apple's reference
- highHeartRateEvent on developer.apple.com
Availability
The versions Apple’s documentation data gives for highHeartRateEvent, platform by platform, as read on 2026-10-02.
| Platform | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---|---|---|
| iOS | 12.2 | — |
| iPadOS | 12.2 | — |
| Mac Catalyst | 13.0 | — |
| macOS | 13.0 | — |
| visionOS | 1.0 | — |
| watchOS | 5.2 | — |
The rest of that release: HealthKit Types Introduced in iOS 12.
What a sample holds
Value enum
HKCategoryValue — the enum Apple’s page for highHeartRateEvent names: the generic one, not one of its own. Every category type’s enum is on the HKCategoryValue reference.
Aggregation style and unit family apply only to quantity types. For a category type the dataset records neither, because the concept does not apply — not because Apple declined to say.
Can apps write highHeartRateEvent?
No. Apple’s documentation states that these samples are read-only:
The high heart rate samples are read-only.
On Android Health Connect
No verified Health Connect counterpart. The cross-platform matrix pairs only metrics checked against both Apple’s and Google’s documentation, and highHeartRateEvent is not among them. A similarly named Health Connect record may exist, but a name match is not a verified mapping.
Questions
- Which enum decodes highHeartRateEvent sample values?
- The generic HKCategoryValue. Apple's page for highHeartRateEvent names it rather than an enum of its own; this site's HKCategoryValue reference lists every category type that resolves the same way and what that means for reading the samples.
- Can my app write highHeartRateEvent samples to HealthKit?
- No. Apple's documentation for highHeartRateEvent states: "The high heart rate samples are read-only." (read 2026-10-02).
- Which iOS version added highHeartRateEvent?
- iOS 12.2. Apple's availability data for highHeartRateEvent lists iOS 12.2, iPadOS 12.2, Mac Catalyst 13.0, macOS 13.0, visionOS 1.0 and watchOS 5.2.
Sources checked
- Apple — HKCategoryTypeIdentifier.highHeartRateEvent · read 2026-10-02
- Apple — HKCategoryTypeIdentifier · read 2026-10-02
Apple’s abstract and sentences are quoted for identification; the page layout, the capsule and the cross-platform pairing are AIFitnessAPI’s. Generated from Apple’s documentation by scripts/fetch-healthkit-identifiers.mjs, not typed by hand — the same data as the full identifier table.