Apple Revives Oxygen Tracking Feature On Apple Watches

Apple Watches showcasing advanced health tracking features: from monitoring sleep changes and identifying overnight vital outliers, to detailing various sleep stages, including REM, Core, and Deep sleep. Credit: Ars Technica.

Apple is bringing back oxygen tracking to certain United States Apple Watches after resolving a legal battle. The oxygen tracking feature was first announced for the Apple Watch in October 2022. The update applies to Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 models of the high-end smartwatch, allowing Apple users to monitor oxygen levels from their iPhones in real-time, precisely!

What’s this all about, you ask? Well, this new revelation follows a dispute with Masimo, a medical firm, which accused Apple of patent infringement. Masimo had recently won a ruling to block imports, forcing Apple to remove the feature temporarily (while the dispute was being settled). However, a recent customs decision now permits its return. This situation spotlights the challenges of merging technology and medical innovation. More About Oxygen Tracking

The Apple Watch's oxygen tracker, known as the Blood-Oxygen App, is a fairly unique feature. (By the way, this feature only works on watches that are Series 6 or later; sorry, Series 5s.) The oxygen tracking works by using 'a combination of light emitters and light sensors to take the blood oxygen measurement', as stated on their website (and this PDF). The blood oxygen tracker displays the results as a representation of the percentage of arterial hemoglobin in red blood cells.