Our smartwatches are getting better at what they do, where they can monitor more than just our daily activities like our steps taken, calories burnt, and so on. For example, the Apple Watch comes with an ECG monitoring tool that can alert the wearer if there are any issues with their hearts.
Now it looks like Samsung will be taking things to the next level by announcing that their smartwatches will now have a blood pressure monitoring tool. The company revealed that the application has been cleared by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, meaning that it can now be used to monitor the user’s blood pressure levels.
However, before you get too excited, it’s not as if the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 has suddenly gained new abilities. In order to monitor blood pressure levels, users are required to first calibrate the device by wearing a blood pressure measuring cuff. This process needs to be repeated at least once every four weeks, and each calibration needs to be done three times to ensure accuracy.
This means that it’s not as if you can just strap on the watch and forget about it. Also, it seems to only be approved in South Korea for now, so the rest of the world will have to wait for the feature to gain clearance by the individual country’s regulators. The app is expected to be released in the later part of the year, but it seems like a good step forwards.