Blood Pressure Monitoring

Digital blood pressure monitors have been around for years, and there are many options now that can even connect wirelessly to your iPhone over Bluetooth to help keep track of your blood pressure readings, but Apple obviously knows it would be much better if your Apple Watch can do this directly. For one, it would save you the trouble of purchasing and using a separate accessory, and secondly it would be something you’re always wearing anyway.

A new report this week uncovered a patent that shows that Apple is working on the technology that would allow your blood pressure to be measured using sensors that are built directly into the Apple Watch, right from your wrist. This would allow your blood pressure to be monitored on an ongoing basis, which could help identify signs of hypertension to build a better profile of your heart health as well as alerting you to potential heart risks.

It’s unclear whether the current Apple Watch models include the sensors that would be necessary to pull this off, so it could require an Apple Watch Series 6, although it’s possible it could function in a more limited manner on existing Apple Watch models, in much the same way that watchOS 5 introduced irregular heart rhythm notifications to older models. However, studies have shown that even the iPhone camera can be used to measure blood pressure.