A new report says Apple is on track to build into Apple Watch Series 10 a feature that been a bit of a holy grail for the wearable: blood pressure monitoring.
But the feature reportedly will be limited at first, and require new hardware.
Apple Watch might finally get blood pressure monitoring in 2024
Over the years, Apple Watch gained a growing collection of health sensors, to the point that wellness is the primary focus of many people wearing the devices. The smartwatch monitors the wearer’s heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature and more.
And the next addition is supposedly blood pressure monitoring. This will debut in the 2024 version, Bloomberg first reported in November. And on Sunday, the news site’s Mark Gurman said in his PowerOn newsletter that “all signs point to the new Apple Watch gaining a blood-pressure checker this fall.”
However, the initial iteration will be limited. “In its first iteration, however, the system is designed to just tell a user if their blood pressure is trending upward,” said the report from last autumn. Adding exact readings is still some years away.
The blood pressure monitoring feature allegedly won’t be coming to Apple Watch Series 9 or its predecessors. The feature will apparently require new sensor hardware, so “it doesn’t appear that the capability will be coming to current models,” Gurman said Sunday.
Rumors and speculation of this feature debuting in Apple’s wrist computer have circulated for years. But it might finally might happen in Apple Watch Series 10.
Another potential health improvement remains further away, though. Apple has long had a team working on non-invasive blood glucose monitoring via Apple Watch, but “it’s still unlikely to show up in a product for at least a few years,” said Bloomberg.
Part of Watch X?
2024 will bring the 10th generation of the wearable, and Apple is reportedly prepping significant changes. One of these is, obviously, blood pressure monitoring.
Watch X will supposedly be thinner, and might use a new band attachment system that takes up less room.
This article was first published November 1, 2023. We updated it on March 17, 2024, with additional information.
