Blood oxygen tracking isn’t coming back to the Apple Watch anytime soon

By Bryan M. Wolfe October 28, 2024 7:22AM

Apple Watch Ultra taking a measurement for blood oxygen levels. — Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

One of the major selling points of Apple Watches in recent years has been the ability to test users’ blood oxygen levels. Unfortunately, ongoing litigation has prevented this feature from being included in Apple Watches sold in the U.S. since January. Now, it seems unlikely that this situation will change soon.

On Friday, a Delaware jury found that health-monitoring technology company Masimo infringed on some of Apple’s earlier smartwatch patents. As a result, Apple received an award of only $250. However, the same jury ruled that Masimo’s current watches did not infringe on the patents that Apple accused it of copying. Consequently, an injunction remains in effect in the U.S. that prevents the company from offering blood oxygen tracking on new watches sold in the country.

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At the beginning of the year, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled in favor of Masimo, saying Apple’s use of pulse oximeter technology in the Apple Watch violated Masimo’s patents. As such, any Apple Watch sold after January 18, 2024, couldn’t ship with the feature. Soon after, Apple appealed the decision and countersued, alleging Masimo copied Apple Watch features to use in its smartwatches. Since then, it has been unsuccessful in getting the injunction lifted by a court.

Apple’s blood oxygen feature was first available on the Apple Watch Series 6 in 2020. Since then, it has been available on every non-Apple Watch SE model up to the injunction. The all-new Apple Watch Series 10 has the hardware to support blood oxygen tracking. Therefore, whenever a resolution is reached between the two companies, Apple could push out a software update to add those features to watches currently without them.

Blood oxygen tracking measures the percentage of oxygen currently carried by a user’s red blood cells. Numbers below 95% suggest possible health issues, including respiratory conditions, sleep apnea, heart conditions, or more. It’s an incredibly helpful feature, but due to this latest ruling, it will continue to be missing from Apple Watches for the foreseeable future.

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Mobile and A/V Freelancer

Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.

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