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Apple brings sleep apnea detection to the Watch Series 10
It'll also come to the Series 9 and Ultra 2.
Apple is bringing sleep apnea detection to some Watch models as it tries to position its wearable as a one stop shop for all things health. At the iPhone 16 launch event, the company announced the new Watch Series 10, highlighting the new feature. If you wear your watch to bed, you’ll get an alert pushed to your phone in the morning if it detects disturbances in your breathing. You will also be urged to visit your clinician, and can show them Watch data. All of this information will be collated in the Health app on iPhone.
Rather than using oxygen saturation, which would be the logical approach, Apple says it’s using motion tracking. This is likely tied to Apple’s longstanding patent row with Masimo that has seen the company hurriedly offer workarounds for its blood oxygenation sensor. Your Apple Watch will look for “small movements at the wrist” that are indicative of “interruptions to normal respiratory patterns during sleep.” The company added its work has been validated by a sleep study of “unprecedented” size.
Apnea detection is also coming to both the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, and Apple says it expects the FDA and other regulatory agencies to give their blessings in the coming days. It says the feature will be available in more than 150 countries and regions later this month. The feature had been rumored for a while but there were hints suggesting Apple had struggled to make its workaround as effective as required. Samsung, meanwhile, already has FDA approval for a similar feature on the Galaxy Watch.
Pre-order the Apple Watch 10 here.
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