After years of trying to pass through the FDA, Samsung is finally ready to offer Blood Pressure (BP) monitoring as a wearable feature in the US. Though instead of marketing it as a medical feature, the South Korean tech giant is calling it a “wellness” tool.
Regardless, we’re just excited that the functionality is finally here!
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Samsung announced the development in a new blog post, indicating that support has begun rolling out today, and that the feature will start landing on wearables in phases.
BP monitoring is limited to Galaxy Watch 4 and later released models with Watch OS 4.0 or higher. Additionally, the companion smartphone needs to be running Android OS 12 or higher.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t an independent feature. Owning just a compatible Galaxy Watch 4 will not unlock accurate BP tracking for you. To get things moving, you’d need an old-school upper-arm blood pressure cuff. The cuff is needed for “initial and periodic calibrations (every 28 days).”
Essentially, your Galaxy watch will use the cuff’s data to calibrate its internal sensors. The initial calibration needs to be performed via the Samsung Health Monitor app.
Once available, users will be able to start a BP reading from their watch’s widget section.
Find detailed instructions below:
- From your watch’s Home screen, swipe left to the Blood Pressure widget > Tap Measure.
- Follow the on-screen instructions > Tap OK.
- Sit still without talking while the watch measures your blood pressure > Tap Done.
In addition to manual BP readings, Samsung indicated that it will roll out a “passive monitoring” tool “to show blood pressure trends over time.” Said tool will be out sometime later this year!
