Apple is planning to include a blood pressure monitor in its wristwatch.
According to Bloomberg, Apple aims to include a much-anticipated blood pressure sensor in its smartwatch by 2024. The Apple Watch might have body temperature sensors in addition to sleep tracking and a mechanism to remind users to take their medications.
Wearable businesses are focusing on blood pressure, which may make gadgets far more effective for monitoring heart health. However, the function is notoriously difficult to use, and experts say it still needs more work before it can be used in the real world.
Currently, the technology in smartwatches can detect if blood pressure is rising or declining.
Samsung, on the other hand, has produced watches with blood pressure monitoring capabilities, among other things. Apple also plans to expand the Workout app on the watch to include new workout kinds and stats related to running.
Apple is also working on incorporating noninvasive blood sugar monitoring into its wearables, although this feature is reported to be “a few years out” and “hasn’t been allocated a target year of release yet.” Meanwhile, Apple wants to increase third-party glucose meter support.
The Health app for iPhone will be updated before the blood pressure monitoring tool is released, bringing extended sleep tracking capability, medicine management, and additional women’s health features. The medical management section of the app will allow you to scan your pill bottles, and it will track your adherence and remind you to take your medications. However, just a subset of these functions may be available in the first edition.
This year’s Apple Watch might have a body temperature sensor.
This would initially just be used to assist with fertility planning, but it might potentially be used to assess whether a user has a higher than average body temperature, however it is unlikely to provide an accurate value, similar to blood pressure. That’s how Fitbit accomplishes it on the Sense: you get a “range” and are notified how far you departed from your regular range by a temperature delta.
Apple will launch “as many as” three new Apple Watches this year, including a standard Series 8, a low-end SE, and “an upscale model with a rugged casing that is aimed at extreme athletes”