watchOS 27 could make Apple Watch’s important new health feature even better

Apple Watch added hypertension notifications last year, an important and potentially life-saving new feature. And per a recent report, it sounds like watchOS 27 might make them even better.

Hypertension notification upgrade under review at FDA, likely launching in watchOS 27

Apple Watch has been a transformative product for many users’ health. It’s also been behind countless stories of life-saving health interventions.

Last year with watchOS 26, Apple launched hypertension notifications as a major new health feature. The company’s announcement stressed its huge potential impact. Via Apple Newsroom:

Hypertension is the leading modifiable risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease, and impacts approximately 1.3 billion adults globally. It is frequently undiagnosed because it often has no symptoms, many people do not see a doctor regularly, and even during a clinical visit, it can be easily missed with a single measurement.

The potential to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease in over a billion adults makes clear how important these hypertension alerts can be.

And based on a report from Digitimes earlier this summer, it sounds like watchOS 27 could bring an upgrade to the feature. Siu Han writes:

Apple has added a new high blood pressure notification feature to Apple Watch, sharpening the device’s health-management appeal…The feature has not yet been made available to the public as it remains under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The report offers no further details, but since Apple Watch already offers high blood pressure notifications, it sounds like an expansion or upgrade to the feature is coming.

No changes to hypertension notifications were unveiled at WWDC when watchOS 27 was introduced. But it’s fairly common for Apple to hold back health features until it unveils new Apple Watch models in the fall.

It’s possible the upgrades to hypertension notifications will be exclusive to new hardware. Apple Watch Ultra 4 and Apple Watch Series 12 both launch next month.

But historically Apple has shown a tendency to extend health improvements to older Watch models too via software updates. And that’s likely what we’ll see with watchOS 27.

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