Beiwe22.5.11 - App Store

The Beiwe App is part of the Beiwe Research Platform.

Beiwe is an open-source research platform for subjects enrolled in clinical and non-clinical studies. It provides research-quality sensor, participant usage, and survey data in reproducible studies and is intended for research purposes. Only participants who have been invited to join a study, and have been provided with a participant ID and registration password from a Beiwe server, can use this app. The Beiwe Platform is a project of the Onnela Lab at Harvard University, and development is supported by funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Usage of this Beiwe app is open to any Beiwe server by providing a URL at participant registration.

Only data configured for collection on an enrolled study are recorded by the app. A small amount of additional metadata, such as whether the user has granted the app permission to access the sensors enabled by the study, are collected in order to assist administrators with participant management and study compliance. All data recorded by the app is encrypted, and once saved it cannot be decrypted except by the server hosting the study.

Please Note: use of background GPS will cause some battery drain. Careful configuration and testing of this load on devices ranging from the iPhone 8/X generation (2016) up to current models has been reliably measured at only 6-8% over 12 hours for new batteries, with a worst case of 14% on an older model with a heavily degraded battery. Further battery drain will vary based sensor configuration of the study you enroll in, and the active time you spend in the app.

(This app may indicate that it connects to Apple's Health app or uses Apple's HealthKit framework. This is due to the use of Apple's ResearchKit framework, which has HealthKit as a dependency. The app does not incorporate Health data.)

Version History We have had several app updates recently, one of them revealed a previously "statistically hidden" bug. Maybe now it will reveal "statistically zero" bugs instead.

Fixes a crash scenario when the app is in the background on studies with very specific configurations. 2.5.11 Sep 30 This update squishes a bug that caused the app to wake up in the background more frequently than intended. 2.5.10 Sep 24 This update fixes a bug where a specific network request could trigger up to twenty-two times more frequently than intended. This was... too frequent. 2.5.9 Sep 5 This update squishes a few bugs:
- The app no longer doesn't not crash when processing double negatives in complex survey logic. Other uncertain logic is now definitely very, very, Very certain, and must take a weekly test to prove it stays that way.
- While the old cancel survey and end task animations were a bit longwinded... the bubbly iOS 26 one was so positively glacial that its slow-motion momentum could cancel the whole app. It has been let go.
- Sensor data could theoretically drift slightly on the ocean of time. The Relevant Protocols have been ... modified... 2.5.7 Jul 2 2.5.6: This update fixes an obscure crash when displaying a survey, and improves some debugging info so we can diagnose issues better.
2.5.5: This update includes Improved Chinese localizations, and contains a possible fix for an issue with error reporting. 2.5.6 11/08/2025 2.5.5: This update includes Improved Chinese localizations, and contains a possible fix for an issue with error reporting. 2.5.5 10/24/2025 2.5,4: Wow. ... sooo it looks like the call-in-to-your-study feature broke due to an iOS update? ... aaaand it was not a recent one? ... ok i fixed it it is fixed now fixed all fixed (fixed)...
2.5.3: This bugfix update to the Beiwe iOS app provides a few accessibility improvements, and a change to the error reporting configuration. 2.5.4 08/20/2025 This bugfix update to the Beiwe iOS app provides a few accessibility improvements, and a change to the error reporting configuration. 2.5.3 08/13/2025 This release of the Beiwe app teaches that alert badge how to count, updates survey reminders to be much more reliable at their gosh-dang'd job, and handles a bunch of conditions where surveys would be missed entirely through no fault of yours.

There are also quite a few items that programmers love to talk about, updated libraries, a 100% fix for a bug that was already 99.9% fixed, cleanup, better error reporting.... If you are interested in further details of the development process you can find this app at Onnela-Lab's beiwe-ios Github repository.

Addendum: there were some changes to libraries that handle app graphics. It is very difficult to ensure we saw every interaction - accessibility settings, dark/light mode, older iOS versions, screen sizes... - so if you encounter one please let us know with a screenshot to our GitHub repository - we can't fix what we can't see! 2.5.2 01/03/2025 The big Two-Five!
This version of Beiwe has some major technical upgrades, all in pursuit of a single critical feature: background app persistence.

Beiwe now stays open in the background much, much longer than it ever has before. This will increase the data collection throughout the day, at the cost of some extra battery drain.
You will notice that the location services icon is visible in the statusbar - this is a normal part of Beiwe's operations.

Known bugs:
- The badge on the Beiwe App icon can become desynced from the number of available surveys. 2.5.0 03/28/2024 Woops! Looks like a line of debugging code got accidentally included in previous build and it caused the app to crash - to the 16 users affected, I apologize.

Fixes a bug where GPS fuzzing could produce invalid values like -400 degrees longitude.
Adds some telemetry features so we can gather data about when the app is running in the background, which we can then use to improve the app. 2.4.7 02/23/2024 Fixes a bug where GPS fuzzing could produce invalid values like -400 degrees longitude.
Adds some telemetry features so we can gather data about when the app is running in the background, which we can then use to improve the app. 2.4.6 02/14/2024 We've definitely fixed A black screen bug, please let us know if you still encounter any after this update. 2.4.5 01/07/2024 Woops! 2.4.3 had a nasty bug that caused the app to crash. Sorry about that, hopefully it's all resolved now. 2.4.4 11/10/2023 Mostly bug fixes, but also survey names are now visible in any Study that supports them. 2.4.3 11/06/2023 Minor bug fixes, checkbox questions can now be referenced inside survey logic. 2.4.2 10/06/2023 Compatability fix with data formatting, new date/time question types available for use on beta versions of Beiwe server. 2.4.1 08/26/2023 New date and time question options, some bug fixes too. 2.4 07/21/2023 Numerous bug fixes, including (finally!) fixes for many ui glitches that had crept in over the years. 2.3.1 07/05/2023 Bug fixes involving app persistence, App now updates to the most current study settings for participants already enrolled in studies. 2.3 06/02/2023 Tentative iOS 16.1 compatibility fix, numerous internal improvements and stability fixes. 2.2.1 11/15/2022 Enhanced two data stream's configurability, this update has no user-facing changes.
Finally fixed the app icon! (That was duuuumb!) 2.2.0 11/10/2022 Bug fix for audio file corruption.
There is a known bug with push notifications. For the best experience please exit the app from the task switcher and log in again after enrolling in a study. 2.1.3 11/01/2022 There is a known bug with push notifications. For the best experience please exit the app from the task switcher and log in again after enrolling in a study. 2.1.2 09/27/2022 Bug fixes for buggy encryption code. 2.1.1 09/09/2022