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The Apple Watch might soon become a great tool for hypertension and sleep apnea detection
- The 2024 Apple Watch is expected to feature new hypertension-detection and sleep apnea-detection features.
- At least one of the new Apple Watches next year is also expected to come with a new look, in line with previous reports on a tenth-anniversary redesign.
- In certain markets, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch already features blood pressure monitoring and sleep apnea monitoring features.
The Apple Watch remains one of the best smartwatches you can buy, and it is often a no-brainer recommendation for those looking for a complementing and useful accessory to their iPhone. The Apple Watch Series 9 is the latest one, and it’s one of the big reasons I use the iPhone personally. Apple could be working on making the Apple Watch even more useful, as the next iteration could get hypertension and sleep apnea detection.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the Apple Watch is going to be the company’s big focus in 2024. We’ve already seen mentions of the tenth-anniversary redesign with new health features; the latest report reiterates the same.
The report mentions that there will be at least one Apple Watch model in 2024 with a new look. Further, two of the big health additions are expected to be hypertension detection and sleep apnea detection. The smartwatch will detect onset symptoms and advise its users to go for follow-up testing for these conditions.
We have already seen these features on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 6, but only in a few regions. The Galaxy Watch can monitor blood pressure, but it is a deliberate process that requires manual calibration and testing. The watch does not do this seamlessly, so it cannot detect any change in patterns over time. The sleep apnea detection feature works better, though, as it automatically detects the same by monitoring the blood oxygen levels during sleep.
It remains to be seen how Apple finally implements and integrates these features into the Apple Watch. In classic Apple fashion, we presume the features will be limited to the new 2024 Apple Watches, even if certain features like sleep apnea tracking do not need new sensors.
If you already have a functional Apple Watch that will last you for about ten months, then it may be worth holding onto it instead of buying a new Apple Watch right now.