Apple Watch could soon gain new high blood pressure feature

watchOS 26 added hypertension alerts to Apple Watch last fall, which you can learn how to enable here. A new report today, however, says Apple has another new high blood pressure feature coming to Apple Watch soon.

FDA is reviewing new high blood pressure notification feature for Apple Watch, says report

Today Digitimes published a new report that highlighted two major upgrades coming to Apple Watch Ultra 4.

But that same report also has some intriguing mentions of a new high blood pressure feature that’s apparently been submitted to the FDA for review.

Siu Han writes at Digitimes:

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 isn’t entirely clear on how this new feature differs from the existing hypertension notifications that arrived in watchOS 26.

It also doesn’t specify release timing, though perhaps the mention of the new feature alongside Apple Watch Ultra 4 details suggests it will launch with Apple’s forthcoming models.

Curiously, right after mentioning that the new feature is pending FDA approval, Han writes: “The next stage is expected to focus on noninvasive blood-glucose monitoring and other functions, subject to government approval.”

It sounds like after this unreleased high blood pressure feature arrives, Apple’s next stage of development will focus on blood-glucose monitoring—something that’s long been in the works. But whether this means Apple has had a breakthrough on that front is less clear.

9to5Mac’s Take

The way this report is written makes it hard to draw any strong conclusions other than on two key points. It’s claiming:

1. Apple has a new high blood pressure notification feature coming for Apple Watch that’s distinct in some way from the existing feature.
2. And this feature is currently unreleased but under review with the FDA.

Besides those points, there’s no real detail about the new feature or how a future blood-glucose project might be related.

How would you want to see Apple Watch’s hypertension alerts improved in the future? Let us know in the comments.

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