stairAscentSpeed: HealthKit quantity type
HKQuantityTypeIdentifierStairAscentSpeed · read from Apple’s documentation on 2026-10-02
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.stairAscentSpeed (Objective-C HKQuantityTypeIdentifierStairAscentSpeed) is a HealthKit quantity type in Apple's "Mobility" group. Apple's abstract: “A quantity sample type measuring the user’s speed while climbing a flight of stairs.” Apple's discussion says its samples use distance/time units and measure discrete values, so in HKStatisticsQuery it takes .discreteAverage, .discreteMin or .discreteMax. It is available from iOS 14.0 and watchOS 7.0.
What Apple says stairAscentSpeed is
A quantity sample type measuring the user’s speed while climbing a flight of stairs.
Apple’s abstract, quoted from its stairAscentSpeed reference page, read 2026-10-02. Apple’s discussion of the type runs 137 words.
- Swift
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.stairAscentSpeed- Objective-C
HKQuantityTypeIdentifierStairAscentSpeed- Family
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier- Apple's topic group
- Mobility
- Group page
- Mobility
- Apple's reference
- stairAscentSpeed on developer.apple.com
Availability
The versions Apple’s documentation data gives for stairAscentSpeed, platform by platform, as read on 2026-10-02.
| Platform | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---|---|---|
| iOS | 14.0 | — |
| iPadOS | 14.0 | — |
| Mac Catalyst | 14.0 | — |
| macOS | 13.0 | — |
| visionOS | 1.0 | — |
| watchOS | 7.0 | — |
The rest of that release: HealthKit Types Introduced in iOS 14.
Sum or average, and in which units
Apple states both of these in the prose of the type’s discussion, not as properties, so they are derived from Apple’s sentence and the sentence is shown with each.
Aggregation style
discrete — in an HKStatisticsQuery, use .discreteAverage, .discreteMin or .discreteMax. Apple’s sentence:
These samples use distance/time units (described in ) and measure discrete values (described in ).
Unit family
distance/time — every type in this family is on the HKUnit reference.
Apple states it in the same sentence as the aggregation style, quoted above.
Empty parentheses and a dangling “described in” mark links in Apple’s sentence to other documentation pages: the generator keeps the sentence’s text, not its links, and the quote is left as stored rather than repaired.
Can apps write stairAscentSpeed?
Apple’s documentation for stairAscentSpeed does not state that its samples are read-only. Apple states read-only status only in prose, and its silence is not a statement either way, so this page makes no claim that apps can save it.
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 stairAscentSpeed is not among them. A similarly named Health Connect record may exist, but a name match is not a verified mapping.
Questions
- Should I sum or average stairAscentSpeed in HealthKit?
- Average it, or take its minimum or maximum — do not sum it. Apple's documentation for stairAscentSpeed describes it as measuring discrete values, so an HKStatisticsQuery over it takes .discreteAverage, .discreteMin or .discreteMax. Apple's sentence, as read on 2026-10-02: "These samples use distance/time units (described in ) and measure discrete values (described in )."
- Which unit family does Apple give stairAscentSpeed?
- Distance/time. Apple's discussion of stairAscentSpeed says its samples use distance/time units: "These samples use distance/time units (described in ) and measure discrete values (described in )."
- Which iOS version added stairAscentSpeed?
- iOS 14.0. Apple's availability data for stairAscentSpeed lists iOS 14.0, iPadOS 14.0, Mac Catalyst 14.0, macOS 13.0, visionOS 1.0 and watchOS 7.0.
Sources checked
- Apple — HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.stairAscentSpeed · read 2026-10-02
- Apple — HKQuantityTypeIdentifier · 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.