Apple Watch Blood Pressure Monitor Delayed Until 2024 or Later [Report]

Apple's highly anticipated blood pressure monitor feature for Apple Watch has run into some difficulties and will not be ready until 2024 at the earliest, according to a Bloomberg report.

The company has teams working on an updated sensor and software for the Apple Watch that would determine if a user has high blood pressure, but accuracy has been a challenge during testing, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The feature has been planned for at least four years, but it’s probably two years away from hitting the market and may slip until 2025, they said. Apple’s shares were up about 1% at 9:41 a.m. in New York.




Apple is running trials of its blood-pressure technology on employees. Apparently, the company doesn't plan to give users their specific systolic and diastolic readings, rather it will warn wearers that they may have hypertension. Users could then consult a doctor or use a standard blood pressure checker to determine their exact readings.

Apple is also rumored to be working towards adding blood sugar monitoring to Apple Watch. This would be a major help to diabetics but unfortunately, the feature is said to be years away without a target year for launch. In the meanwhile, Apple could add better support for third party glucose meters.

Despite these features being a ways from completion, Apple does have other health improvements that we could see sooner. Those include new women's health, sleep, fitness and medication management features.

The company could add a body-temperature sensor to the Apple Watch as early as this year. It would initially be designed to help with fertility planning but could later be expanded to determine if a user has higher than normal body temperature.


Apple is also working to expand its atrial fibrillation detection feature to calculate 'burden'. ie. how often a person is in a state of atrial fibrillation across a period of time. This could appear in watchOS 9, the software update that is widely expected to debut at WWDC 2022 in June and ship this fall.

Also expected in watchOS 9 is a new low-power mode. The feature is designed to let the watch run some apps without using as much battery life. Currently, when in power reserve mode, the Apple Watch only displays the time.

Finally, watchOS 9 is also said to bring some refreshed watch faces.

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