It seems like they’ve hit a bit of a brick wall with new sensors. I think the challenges with blood pressure and blood sugar are just very high. After all it’s just a watch resting on top of the skin. Temperature should be easily doable though.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New Apple Watch Health Features Coming This Year, but Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Sensors Delayed
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I said since the early days of the Apple Watch that it should be able to be paired with an iPad instead of, or as well as, an iPhone.
Feel like I saw this exact same story a year ago, maybe I dreamt it
Not enough meat on that bone. I’ll keep my Series 4 until it breaks or the battery takes a crap…
So people can go on and criticize Apple for releasing a half-baked health feature? Yeah, no. This isn't some kind of software testing, this is regarding the health of people. Imagine what would happen if they got false reports on their Apple Watch.
Can someone wake me when the glucose monitoring feature is ready? No, seriously...I may be in a diabetic coma!
We've heard that it's getting new health features every year in recent years. ECG was the last major one, nearly 4 years ago with the Apple Watch 4. Blood oxygen was added on the 6, with little fanfare.
But it's a health device so these guys just need to keep claiming new health features will be added every year and eventually they'll be right.
But it's a health device so these guys just need to keep claiming new health features will be added every year and eventually they'll be right.
I agree. There's only so much you can do for a wrist-based device if you want to ensure accuracy. I'm a little skeptical about measuring body temperature through the wrist though - my forearm and hands are usually a lot more sensitive to the temperature changes in the environment so I'm not sure how accurate the temperature sensor would be.
Apple has their own internal testing teams that are more than large enough. They don't need millions of people to beta test something for them. Can you imagine what hospitals would look like if the feature didn't work right and people started freaking out and visiting their healthcare providers?
As you said, the press would have a field day with it. Imagine the MR folks getting on their soap box about how Apple wants them to pay for the opportunity to beta test something. They'd lose it.
Legit companies don't make people pay for things that aren't ready for prime-time. This isn't Tesla convincing their stupid buyers to pay thousands for features that are still in beta.
No doubt it’s not an easy task. But we’re also talking about one of the most valuable companies in the world with unlimited resources.
How long has this promise been circulating now? I suspect there’s some truth to the article’s claim of team members jumping ship because of inaction.
Like I said, it’s not urgent to act, when you hold 30-50 percent of the smart watch market share.
Blood pressure, you could look at the rate of flow during a pulse and compare it to the rate of flow between beats. It would give you a good general trend, but probably not a specific value. As far as blood sugar, I would guess it would be some kind of spectroscopic analysis. There is probably a slight shift in color depending on how much sugar is in the blood. This would be very similar to how O2 saturation is measured, only quite a bit harder.
Hilo 24/7 Blood Pressure Monitor
Our clinically validated device measures your blood pressure automatically at optimal times – day and night – without any action needed from you.
aktiia.com
I wrote briefly about the above Swiss device in a presentation last year, and a doctor friend of mine bought one to try. He said it wasn't particularly accurate (same as a wrist-cuff one) but the trend data was ok.
I would just like an ambient temperature sensor - something that tells me the temperature right now where I am. When I am indoors my watch will tell me what the temp. is outdoors - reported by the nearest weather station some time ago - but it won't tell me what the temp. is right where I am, indoors in my office, or my hotel room, or my car, etc.
It could probably be done today. The hard part would be getting it small enough to fit inside an Apple Watch, with all the other watch stuff in the box too. The other hard part would be calibrating it to the individual user. This is a situation where small changes in skin tone could make a big difference. I am guessing there may be some kind of auto calibration that takes a few days.
Can’t wait for blood sugar monitor that would be a great addition, only for that reason I will buy it!
That would be far harder than blood pressure or glucose levels. The problem is, your wrist is quite warm. That would throw off the readings by quite a bit. I guess you could have two temperature sensors, one facing the wrist, one facing the air, then do some math. The problem is, that would drastically reduce the accuracy. It could probably tell you if the room was very cold or very warm. I suspect you can tell the difference between -20F and 120F.
Bring Apple Watch as fully standalone device with NO dependency (NO need to iPhone or similar):
Time For The Apple Watch to Separate From The iPhone
It’s Time for the Apple Watch to Break Free From the iPhone
www.bloomberg.com
Do not forget a camera to take pictures, work as scanner (including Apple Live Text), read QR codes, etc. Then, I am sold. An extra bonus would be to connect it to the Mac.
Time For The Apple Watch to Separate From The iPhone
Time For The Apple Watch to Separate From The iPhone
The iPhone Series Seven has got closer wearable closer to breaking free from the iPhone but isn't there yet.
www.macobserver.com
It’s Time for the Apple Watch to Break Free From the iPhone
It’s Time for the Apple Watch to Break Free From the iPhone
This is the free version of Power On. If you like it, consider subscribing to Bloomberg.com—you’ll receive this newsletter several hours earlier and get exclusive access to a Q&A section with me.
www.bloomberg.com
Do not forget a camera to take pictures, work as scanner (including Apple Live Text), read QR codes, etc. Then, I am sold. An extra bonus would be to connect it to the Mac.
Bring Apple Watch as fully standalone device with NO dependency (NO need to iPhone or similar):
Time For The Apple Watch to Separate From The iPhone
Time For The Apple Watch to Separate From The iPhone
The iPhone Series Seven has got closer wearable closer to breaking free from the iPhone but isn't there yet.www.macobserver.com
It’s Time for the Apple Watch to Break Free From the iPhone
It’s Time for the Apple Watch to Break Free From the iPhone
This is the free version of Power On. If you like it, consider subscribing to Bloomberg.com—you’ll receive this newsletter several hours earlier and get exclusive access to a Q&A section with me.
Do not forget a camera to take pictures, work as scanner (including Apple Live Text), read QR codes, etc. Then, I am sold. An extra bonus would be to connect it to the Mac.
Agree, but unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen just yet.
They can continue to milk this and know that an iPhone locks you into their ecosystem. So an Android user who wants an Apple Watch has no choice but to switch.
Blood pressure sensor would be a huge one for me. I was planning on going back to an analog watch when my 6 dies, but blood pressure, if it comes out, I would keep in the ecosystem.
All of the SpO2 sensors in wrist watches are super inaccurate anyway. Id rather wait until they actually give accurate sensors. I have a garmin watch from 2019 and the Blood oxygen reading will say 92% one minute and 96% the next. Then when I use an actual blood oxygen test its always 99+.
Apple is still planning to add body temperature monitoring and new health features to the Apple Watch this year, despite experiencing development problems with blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring, in addition to multiple new features in the iPhone's Health app, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Apple has reportedly been working on an updated sensor for the Apple Watch that is capable of determining if a user has high blood pressure, but accuracy has been an issue when testing the technology on employees. The feature is purportedly able to tell users if they may have hypertension, rather than provide specific systolic and diastolic readings. Apple is said to have been working on the feature for at least four years, but it is unlikely to be ready until 2024 at the earliest and may slip to 2025.
Apple is also working on non-invasive blood glucose monitoring, but the feature is still believed to be several years away and the company is not yet targeting a release year. In the meanwhile, Apple has discussed improving support for third-party glucose meters on the Apple Watch and on the iPhone's Health app to help users with diabetes.
In the immediate term, Apple is working on bringing new women's health features to the Apple Watch and iPhone, as well as new sleep, fitness, and medication management features in the iPhone's Health app. The company is still planning to add a body temperature sensor to the Apple Watch this year, with the feature initially designed to aid fertility planning. Future Apple Watch models could determine if a user has a higher than normal body temperature, but it is unlikely to show an exact measurement.
As part of watchOS 9, Apple is planning to improve its existing atrial fibrillation detection feature with a new capability to measure how long a person is in a state of atrial fibrillation across a certain period. There may also be more workout types and additional metrics for running workouts in the Apple Watch's Workout app.
iOS 16 may feature improvements to the Health app that expand sleep tracking functionality, as well as add new medicine management and women's health features. Apple is said to be developing a medicine management tool to allow users to scan their pills into the Health app and remind users to take them, but the initial version that is set to launch this year is unlikely to include all of the functionality that Apple has planned.
Amid Apple's work on new health features and a number of departures on the company's health team, Gurman added that some employees have been unhappy with Apple's progress, arguing that enhancements are taking too long, not enough risks are being taken, and that the Health team has not grown in at least two years.
Article Link: New Apple Watch Health Features Coming This Year, but Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar Sensors Delayed
I will definitely upgrade whenever the Apple Watch gets Blood Pressure & Glucose monitoring sensors. But for now, my Apple Watch 6 is perfect. ?? I use it on my bike rides to monitor my stats. ??♂️
Fairly confident Apple's been looking at doing this. Before the pandemic Kevin Sayer, indicated that they had been working with Apple... just makes me cringe knowing he was on Mad Money pushing profitability to the show, but that's a different matter... https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/06/...-diabetes-collaboration-with-apple-watch.html Ultimately the transmitter for Dexcom is just bluetooth, just need an app on the watch to display that result. My bigger peeve is limited use of complications on the watch face. Since 3rd party apps are limited to the number of times the complication can update a day, there's no way of updating the complication 12 times an hour, meaning the official Dexcom complication is often incorrect without opening the app. Best workaround is to use Sugarmate's ability to write to the Apple iCloud calendar to get around their 3rd party limitation, and that'll put your reading on your car dash when driving.