After not being present on Apple Watches in the US over the past few years, Apple today confirmed that the blood oxygen monitor will return to supported models via a software update.
For those unaware of the drama that has unfolded over the past few years, Apple has been locked in a legal battle with health technology company Masimo over the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen feature in the United States.
As part of the battle, an import ban came into effect in December 2023, which blocked sales of models of Apple Watch with the functionality. Apple indeed paused sales, but only for a few days, relaunching sales in January 2024 without the feature enabled. The hardware was still there – it just wasn’t enabled in the region.
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With the legal proceedings between Apple and Masimo continuing, Apple has had to essentially redesign how the blood oxygen tracking feature works on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the US.
According to Apple, the feature now involves measuring sensor data from the Blood Oxygen app on the Apple Watch and sending it for calculation on a paired iPhone, with results viewable in the Respiratory section of the Health app.
Importantly, models of Apple Watch purchased and used outside the US remain unchanged, with no need for this ‘temporary’ workaround.
The redesigned blood oxygen monitoring feature will be available today as part of the iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 updates, so make sure you install it once prompted.
Welcome back to the blood oxygen party, US Apple Watch users!
