The schedule of health functions for the Apple Watch is full, some are likely to be available in the fall, for others you have to wait a few more years.
Bloomberg cite several things that we can expect from this year with the next generation of Apple Watch. Emphasis would be placed on functions intended more for a female audience. There would thus be a sensor for the body temperature in order to determine the imminence of a period of ovulation.
This temperature tracking would be extended to all people eventually, but not in the short term and always with alerts illuminating a situation rather than displaying numbers.
An update of the Health app would bring changes in sleep monitoring and something to support users who have to take medication on a regular basis, they will be able to scan and save the references of their boxes of tablets. The idea is to offer a sort of digital pill divider with a function for monitoring medication intake and reminders, but this planning aspect would not necessarily be implemented this year.
In the Exercise app, expect support for additional disciplines and new recorded data for running activities.
watchOS 9 would also provide more extensive monitoring of people prone to atrial fibrillation problems. The system would keep an activity log to inform the user about his various episodes and offer him a more general view of his situation.
Long terme
In the much longer term, Apple has other projects that are more complex to develop. The blood pressure measurement function with new sensors is no longer expected before at least 2024 or even 2025. The reliability of these readings is proving difficult according to the feedback obtained by Bloomberg. This function has been under study for at least four good years and the end of the tunnel is still far away.
The tests carried out on voluntary employees are not yet sufficiently conclusive. Even if the function does not plan to deliver figures to the user – his systolic and diastolic pressures – but rather to warn him that he may be in the hypertension phase and that a control with an armband or a visit to the doctor are recommended. The risks can be serious, between heart failure, stroke, blood circulation disorders, etc.
Builders under pressure to measure blood pressure
The difficulty in offering this capability can be illustrated by its presence in some of Samsung’s watches. It’s not a push-button function like an ECG, there’s a whole preparation and follow-up to be planned to make it usable. You must first calibrate your Galaxy Watch under very strict conditions and then validate the operation with a real armband blood pressure monitor. Only then can we do our checks. But the comparison with an armband will have to be renewed every 28 days.
The measurement of blood pressure does not interest everyone and the first targets will certainly be more inclined to a few more efforts. But the example of Samsung is eloquent in that it demonstrates the complexity of the procedure. We can assume that Apple, true to its philosophy, seeks to reconcile reliability and simplicity.
Finally, Apple is still thinking about a non-invasive blood glucose sensor but this project is still far from complete, no date would even be set in stone for its launch.
Apple contractors reportedly working on blood glucose sensor
We can recall in passing that rumors have been evoking for a while a contribution of future AirPods Pro 2, hoped for the second half, to the Health app.
watchOS 9 would have a new low power mode