stairDescentSpeed: HealthKit quantity type
HKQuantityTypeIdentifierStairDescentSpeed · read from Apple’s documentation on 2026-10-02
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.stairDescentSpeed (Objective-C HKQuantityTypeIdentifierStairDescentSpeed) is a HealthKit quantity type in Apple's "Mobility" group. Apple's abstract: “A quantity sample type measuring the user’s speed while descending 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 stairDescentSpeed is
A quantity sample type measuring the user’s speed while descending a flight of stairs.
Apple’s abstract, quoted from its stairDescentSpeed reference page, read 2026-10-02. Apple’s discussion of the type runs 138 words.
- Swift
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.stairDescentSpeed- Objective-C
HKQuantityTypeIdentifierStairDescentSpeed- Family
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier- Apple's topic group
- Mobility
- Group page
- Mobility
- Apple's reference
- stairDescentSpeed on developer.apple.com
Availability
The versions Apple’s documentation data gives for stairDescentSpeed, 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 stairDescentSpeed?
Apple’s documentation for stairDescentSpeed 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 stairDescentSpeed 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 stairDescentSpeed in HealthKit?
- Average it, or take its minimum or maximum — do not sum it. Apple's documentation for stairDescentSpeed 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 stairDescentSpeed?
- Distance/time. Apple's discussion of stairDescentSpeed 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 stairDescentSpeed?
- iOS 14.0. Apple's availability data for stairDescentSpeed 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.stairDescentSpeed · 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.