Apple’s long-lost blood oxygen tracking feature for its smartwatch is finally coming back to the United States after a long legal battle. The Apple Watch sensors will now collect the data and then send it to a paired iPhone to be measured and calculated.
You’ll be able to see the results in the Respiratory section of the Health app on your phone. The feature, which was removed at the end of 2023 due to a patent infringement lawsuit from Masimo Corp. and a US Customs injunction, is returning for Apple Watch owners who purchased models with the feature disabled. The workaround is rolling out in iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1.
The feature was first introduced in the Series 6 Apple Watches back in 2020, but in 2023, Masimo, a company that makes its wearables with pulse oximeters, convinced the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that Apple’s technology for reading blood oxygen levels infringed on its patents. This led to a ban on importing the Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches. Apple tried to fight it, even temporarily resuming sales before the ban was reinstated, which ultimately forced the company to remove the blood oxygen capabilities from its watches in the United States.
The blood oxygen app is a big deal because it’s such an advanced feature to lose. Older Apple Watches still had the feature, but any new models purchased in the United States since early 2024were missing it entirely. So, if you were thinking of upgrading, you would lose a key feature that your current watch had.
It’s a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users. If you have one of these models, and it didn’t come with the feature, you’ll now be able to access it by updating your paired iPhone to iOS 18.6.1 and your Apple Watch to watchOS 11.6.1. The update won’t affect older Apple Watch models that already have the original feature, or any watches purchased outside the United States.
This update is a clever way to get around the legal issues, since the watch itself is just collecting the sensor data, and the iPhone is doing the calculating and displaying. Apple Watches seem to be advertised as a must-have for health and wellness, and the blood oxygen sensor is one of the big features. It is used to identify things like breathing problems, lung disease, and circulation issues, so having this back is also a big win for Apple.
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