Apple Watch fans and enthusiasts hoping for health features like blood pressure monitoring and sleep apnea detection might be disappointed. According to a Bloomberg report, these features are unlikely to arrive with the Apple Watch 10 or Apple Watch Ultra 3. On the other hand, the Apple Watch SE might have a plastic body.
Blood pressure monitoring reportedly hit technical snags and design hurdles. While there were expectations of full blood pressure readings, it seems Apple’s system might only warn users of high blood pressure compared to their baseline. Here are CAD renders of Apple Watch 10 (or Apple Watch X?)
Another question is when Apple will add long-anticipated health tools to its watches. The company has been developing technology to detect high blood pressure and sleep apnea that were slated for release this year. But the effort hasn’t gone smoothly. Since making headway on those features last year, Apple has run into some serious snags, I’m told.
The technology that measures high blood pressure, or hypertension, hasn’t been as reliable as hoped during testing. That may force Apple to postpone the release beyond this year. There have been particular concerns about the blood-pressure feature working properly with the new Series 10 design.
Sleep apnea detection faces a legal roadblock. Apple’s lawsuit regarding blood oxygen technology prevents them from using the necessary tech for now. Disabling the feature at launch for later activation is a possibility but hinges on the lawsuit’s outcome, thanks to Masimo.
While these changes are delayed, there’s some hope for long-term health tracking. Glucose monitoring, a feature rumored for years, has reportedly seen progress in development. Still, the challenge of non-invasive blood sugar measurement remains a hurdle.
A longer-term goal is to get glucose monitoring into the Apple Watch. Such a feature has been in development for about a decade, and the company hit major milestones in that work, I’ve reported.
Samsung has had blood pressure monitoring for quite some time now, at least since the Galaxy Watch 4, which was released three years ago. The Galaxy Watch 7’s launch is due in a couple of days, on July 10th, alongside the rumored Galaxy Watch Ultra.