On Thursday the Food and Drug Administration cleared a new hypertension detection tool for the Apple Watch. The health feature was one of the highlights at Apple's September iPhone event and will alert Apple Watch owners of potential signs of high blood pressure, a condition that goes undiagnosed in millions of people.
In addition to the FDA clearing Apple's chronic high blood pressure tool, the Cupertino company announced that it will be available on its watches starting next week in 150 countries including the US, European Union, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.
Hypertension alerts were unveiled as part of the announcements for Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3. Many (including myself) assumed it would be exclusive to the newest high-end models. But Apple Watch Series 9 and newer and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and newer will support the new high blood pressure detector.
The features arrives at a time when wearable competitors like Oura, Google and Samsung are releasing more features aimed at health, wellness and preventative care. For example, the Galaxy Watch 8, which released earlier this summer, has a skin-based antioxidant index. But Apple's hypertension tool isn't the only new health addition to the company's watches. There's also Sleep Score that grades the quality of your rest on a 0–100 scale.
Both these features will be coming with the WatchOS 26 update next week.
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Hypertension alerts
While it's not the full blood pressure monitoring that many Apple Watch fans were hoping for, hypertension alerts use existing sensors to tackle a serious health concern: a potentially fatal, silent condition that many people don't even realize they're living with. According to Apple the feature is expected to notify over 1 million people with undiagnosed hypertension within the first year.
Much like Apple's irregular heart rhythm and sleep apnea notifications, hypertension alerts work in the background and don't require any extra steps. After a 30-day analysis period, the watch will send an alert if it detects patterns consistent with high blood pressure. Apple is clear that this is not a diagnosis. The feature has been cleared by the FDA, but the goal is to provide an early warning that sparks a conversation with a physician.
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