Apple is sometimes accused of deliberately withholding new features from older devices for no good reason. For example, eyebrows were raised when dual capture video recording was restricted to the iPhone 17 when the same feature has been supported by third-party apps all the way back to the iPhone 11, so is clearly nothing to do with hardware capabilities.
When it comes to the latest health features, however, the company is wisely taking a far more inclusive approach …
Hypertension alerts
The headline new health feature of the Apple Watch models is hypertension notifications, aka alerting you to signs of chronic high blood pressure.
Hypertension is an extremely serious medical condition where the force of the blood against artery walls is consistently high, putting you at major risk from heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure. The World Health Organization estimates that hypertension kills around 7.5 million people each year, equivalent to almost 13% of all deaths.
In the US, the CDC lists it as the 13th biggest killer in the country, responsible for more than 42,000 deaths each year.
Although introduced with the Apple Watch Series 11 and the Apple Watch Ultra 3, the company is also adding the feature to three older models:
- Apple Watch Ultra 2
- Apple Watch Series 10
- Apple Watch Series 9
Sleep scores
Another feature introduced with the latest Apple Watches, but also available on older models, is Sleep Score.
I’ve had this feature on my Oura smart ring for a little over a year now and have previously written about how valuable I think it is.
I also found the sleep data reassuring when I suffered a bout of insomnia. My subjective feeling was that I was laying awake for hours in the middle of the night, but what the data showed was a different story – it was typically one hour maximum, and I had a healthy sleep cycle both before and after. I also got to see from good night’s sleep that, actually, it’s very typical for everyone to wake at some point in the night, it’s just that we often don’t remember doing so.
Not only did this end the classic insomnia cycle – you can’t sleep, worry about the fact that you can’t sleep, and that stress then makes it harder to fall asleep – but it also provided hard data to show that my best approach was simply to lie still in the dark rather than follow the advice sometimes offered to get up for a while and then go back to bed.
Again, Apple is making this feature available to older watches.
Sleep score is available with watchOS 26 for Apple Watch Series 6 or later, Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) or later, and all Apple Watch Ultra models, paired with iPhone 11 or later, running iOS 26.
Additionally, you don’t even need to own any kind of Apple Watch. Any device you own which offers sleep tracking can be used by your iPhone to generate a sleep score in the Apple Health app.
Both decisions are wise ones. While people might grumble about the company holding back optional features like multi-camera video recording on the iPhone, it would be a very different matter to withhold health features with a proven ability to save lives.
Highlighted accessories
- Official Apple Store on Amazon
- Apple 40W Dynamic Power Adapter for iPhone 17
- Official Apple iPhone Air cases and bumpers
- iPhone Air MagSafe Battery
- Official iPhone 17 cases
- Official iPhone 17 Pro cases and Pro Max cases
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