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What Happened to Apple’s AI Health Coach, Project Mulberry?

Apple’s reported AI health coach was once envisioned as a major Health app overhaul. The standalone Mulberry service was later reportedly wound down, with some features potentially headed to Health separately.
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Apple’s reported plan to combine its health data and artificial intelligence into one AI-powered health coach was real—but it never became an announced product. Mark Gurman’s March 2025 report described an ambitious Health app overhaul, internally called Project Mulberry and earlier Project Quartz. On February 5, 2026, he reported that Apple had wound down the standalone service and planned to release some capabilities individually in Health instead. That is a retreat from the original all-in-one concept, not proof that Apple has abandoned every health-related AI feature.

What was Apple reportedly planning?

In a March 30, 2025 report, Mark Gurman described Apple’s proposed effort to combine its health ambitions with AI. The initiative was internally known as Project Mulberry and had previously been called Project Quartz. The idea was to make Apple’s Health app more than a place to store measurements: an AI-powered coach would analyze a person’s information and offer personalized wellness guidance. These were reported plans, not an Apple product announcement. Thurrott’s summary of Gurman’s report outlines the original concept.

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Several names refer to different things and should not be conflated:

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  • Health is Apple’s existing app for viewing and organizing health information.
  • Project Quartz and Project Mulberry were reported internal codenames for the proposed AI-health initiative, not consumer product names.
  • Health+ was a possible name for a paid service, according to the reporting. Apple never announced a Health+ product or subscription.
  • “AI doctor” is a media shorthand, not a confirmed Apple description of a diagnostic service.

What could the proposed coach have done?

Gurman’s original report described a system that might draw on information from an iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, compatible third-party devices and details entered by the user. Health surveys and assessments were also part of the reported plan; external laboratory reports were a possible additional input. The concept was to look across a person’s history and trends rather than treat each reading as an isolated number. Apple-employed physicians were reportedly involved in developing guidance. None of those inputs or capabilities was confirmed as a final specification.

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Reported features included:

  • AI-generated or AI-assisted wellness recommendations based on health trends.
  • Food and nutrition tracking.
  • Assessment of exercise form using the iPhone camera.
  • Educational videos about health conditions and wellness, with experts in fields such as sleep, nutrition, physical therapy, mental health and cardiology.
  • A possible conversational tool for health and wellness questions, with potential links to a more capable future Siri.

Follow-up coverage described an Oakland production studio and expert-hosted content, but those details also came from reporting about a product that Apple had not announced. 9to5Mac’s February 2026 report covered the changes and the reported content plans.

Was Apple building an AI doctor?

The reporting supports describing Mulberry as a proposed health coach, not a physician substitute. Trend summaries, wellness suggestions and educational explanations are not the same as diagnosing an illness, deciding whether symptoms require urgent care or prescribing treatment. The available reports do not establish that Apple planned to offer those clinical services, that the system would be licensed as a medical diagnostic tool, or that a physician would review each response.

The distinction matters because a confident answer based on personal data can sound like medical advice even when it is not. Users with symptoms, chronic conditions, medication questions or a treatment plan should not treat an unannounced AI feature as a replacement for a clinician. Nothing in the reporting establishes how the proposed service would handle emergencies, conflicting advice or medically complex cases.

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  • KNOW YOUR SLEEP SCORE—With advanced sleep tracking, Series 11 gives you a daily sleep score. It’s an easy way to help measure and understand the quality of your sleep, so you can make it more restorative.
  • GET HYPERTENSION NOTIFICATIONS—Did you know that Series 11 can spot signs of chronic high blood pressure? By analyzing how your blood vessels respond to beats of the heart, it can notify you of possible hypertension.*
  • SAFETY FEATURES—A smartwatch that puts your safety first. Series 11 can detect a hard fall or severe car crash, automatically help connect you with emergency services, and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
  • A POWERFUL FITNESS TRACKER—With advanced metrics and motivating features like Pacer, Heart Rate Zones, training load, and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone*—Series 11 is made to help everyone stay active, from runners and hikers to strength-training enthusiasts.

How did the launch plan change?

The original March 2025 report said the project could arrive as early as iOS 19.4. Later expectations moved toward iOS 26 and then iOS 27 as reports described delays. Those were reported targets, not announced release dates. The decisive change came in Gurman’s February 5, 2026 report: Apple had reportedly wound down Mulberry as a standalone service and intended to release selected underlying features separately in Health. Bloomberg’s report describes the retrenchment.

A May 24, 2026 follow-up said some related features might still appear during the iOS 27 cycle, potentially after its initial release. That remains tentative reporting, not confirmation that any particular feature will ship. The iOS 27 timing report discusses that possibility. As of the reports cited here, Apple had not publicly confirmed a Health+ launch, an AI diagnostic service or a date for Mulberry features.

Why did Apple reportedly scale it back?

Gurman-linked coverage attributed the change to a mix of organizational and product concerns. The reports described a transition in Apple’s health leadership following Jeff Williams’ retirement, with Eddy Cue taking greater responsibility for health efforts. They also cited pressure to move faster, concerns that the bundled service might not compete effectively with existing health and wearable offerings, and broader changes to Apple’s AI organization, including John Giannandrea’s planned departure.

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These are explanations attributed to people familiar with internal plans, not public statements from Apple. They suggest why a large, integrated service might have struggled to reach launch, but do not establish a single definitive reason. MacRumors’ coverage also distinguished scaling back the overall service from canceling every related feature.

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What might Apple still release?

Winding down a standalone coach does not necessarily mean discarding all the underlying work. The February 2026 reporting pointed to a piecemeal approach: selected recommendations inside Health, possible reuse of educational videos, and potential health-related chatbot capabilities. A future Siri chatbot could eventually handle more advanced health questions, while Apple Watch and Health features could continue to evolve separately. These possibilities are not guarantees, and the reports do not identify a definitive feature list or rollout schedule.

The most defensible interpretation is that Apple’s health-and-AI strategy may be shifting from one branded subscription to capabilities embedded across existing products. That is an inference from the reported change in delivery plan, not an announced Apple strategy. A feature appearing in Health would not by itself establish that it uses the same technology or data flows envisioned for Mulberry.

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  • A GREAT FITNESS TRACKER—SE 3 can track your workouts in a healthy number of ways—from running and strength training to simply achieving your 10K steps a day. With real-time metrics and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone,* you’ll hit your goals like never before.
  • KEEP HELP CLOSE AT HAND—SE 3 is a smartwatch that can detect a hard fall or severe car crash and automatically help connect you to emergency services and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
  • WOMEN’S HEALTH INSIGHTS—SE 3 has advanced sensors that track your wrist temperature while you sleep. With this smartwatch, you can log your periods and symptoms, get period predictions, and get notified of cycle deviations.*
  • GREAT BATTERY LIFE AND FASTER CHARGING—Enjoy a smartwatch with all-day, 18-hour battery life* from sunup to sundown. Then charge up to twice as fast as SE 2* and get up to 8 hours of battery in just 15 minutes.*
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What would determine whether an AI health coach is useful and safe?

A coach can only make sense of the information it receives. Missing entries, sporadic device use, sensor error, differing measurement methods across third-party products and inaccurate user input could all affect a recommendation. Even technically accurate readings may not provide the clinical context needed to interpret them. People without an Apple Watch, those using Android or non-Apple wearables, and users with sparse or fragmented Health records would also have different data available to the system.

Privacy and consent are unresolved for the unreleased proposal. The reporting does not establish which data would be analyzed on-device or in the cloud, whether AI analysis would require opt-in, how external lab reports might be handled, or whether information could be shared with clinicians, family members or insurers. It also does not say what deletion or export controls would apply to any future service. Apple’s existing Health privacy controls should not be taken as proof of how a hypothetical Mulberry service would work.

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Other practical questions include how the feature would handle children, pregnancy, medication interactions, emergency symptoms, shared devices and travel across regions with different rules. Nor is it known whether features would be available everywhere or whether a subscription would be required. Until Apple provides product details, users should not assume that a future feature is a medical device, clinician-supervised service or source of emergency guidance.

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Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 42mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - S/M. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant
  • A FULL-FEATURED HEALTH TRACKER—Apple Watch Series 11 gives you invaluable insights about your body, right from your wrist. Take an ECG anytime* and get alerts for a high and low heart rate or an irregular rhythm*—so you can stay closer to your heart. You can also view your overnight health tracking metrics with the Vitals app* and be notified of possible sleep apnea.*
  • KNOW YOUR SLEEP SCORE—With advanced sleep tracking, Series 11 gives you a daily sleep score. It’s an easy way to help measure and understand the quality of your sleep, so you can make it more restorative.
  • GET HYPERTENSION NOTIFICATIONS—Did you know that Series 11 can spot signs of chronic high blood pressure? By analyzing how your blood vessels respond to beats of the heart, it can notify you of possible hypertension.*
  • SAFETY FEATURES—A smartwatch that puts your safety first. Series 11 can detect a hard fall or severe car crash, automatically help connect you with emergency services, and notify your emergency contacts.* Check In can automatically notify a loved one when you’ve arrived at your destination.
  • A POWERFUL FITNESS TRACKER—With advanced metrics and motivating features like Pacer, Heart Rate Zones, training load, and Workout Buddy powered by Apple Intelligence from your nearby iPhone*—Series 11 is made to help everyone stay active, from runners and hikers to strength-training enthusiasts.

How would Apple fit into the health-coaching market?

Apple would enter a field that already includes Fitbit and Google’s wellness tools, Oura’s sleep and readiness insights, Garmin’s training ecosystem and Samsung Health. Apple also has its own Fitness+ service for guided workouts and wellness content. The comparison is not simply about which company collects more measurements: the value depends on whether its advice is understandable, useful, appropriately cautious and compatible with the devices a person uses.

Apple’s reported advantage would be the potential to connect information across iPhone, Apple Watch, Health and Siri. That remains a potential benefit, not evidence that Mulberry would have produced better recommendations than competing services. Readers considering a wearable should choose based on current, shipping features and device compatibility—not the possibility of gaining access to an unannounced Apple AI coach. An Apple Watch is not a prerequisite established for any future feature, and buying one does not guarantee access to Mulberry.

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