A brand new sensor on the Apple Watch Series 6 allows it to measure blood saturation. Considered one of the new options coming to the Apple Watch this yr is a device for measuring your blood oxygen level. The Apple Watch Series 6 features a brand new sensor on the underside of the wearable’s casing that makes use of both purple and infrared gentle to measure the oxygen in your crimson blood cells in about 15 seconds. It may do background readings while you sleep. Apple mentioned it’s partnering with health networks throughout North America, including researchers at UC Irvine and the University of Toronto, to leverage the new function to study the results of COVID-19 on a person’s respiratory system. Besides blood oxygen monitoring, watchOS 7 will include an improved framework for measuring VO2 max, which might give you a good idea of your cardiovascular health. Other new options coming to watchOS 7 embrace a handwashing feature and at-home blood monitoring sleep tracking.

The Apple Watch Series 6 feels like it has perfected lots of the options I preferred about its predecessor. It has a brighter at all times-on display, a extra powerful processor, quicker charging and two new colorful choices to choose from. But the characteristic I was most excited to try out was its new sensor at-home blood monitoring that measures oxygen saturation in the blood (aka BloodVitals SPO2) with the tap of a screen. As somebody who panic-bought a pulse oximeter in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and nonetheless checks her ranges at the primary signal of a cough, the thought of getting one strapped to my wrist always was enough to pique my curiosity. But unlike the ECG function on the Apple Watch, which has been tried, examined and cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, together with the irregular coronary heart rhythm notifications, SpO2 on the Apple Watch still appears to be in its early levels. Navigating all this new data might be daunting for anybody who's not a medical professional.

I bought an FDA-cleared pulse oximeter, the system doctors use to measure SpO2 on your fingertip, as a precaution when coronavirus circumstances within the US began to climb. Having low blood oxygen levels doesn't guarantee you've gotten COVID-19, however it's one in every of the foremost signs of the illness. I had learn horror tales of people who waited too lengthy to go to the hospital and had died in their sleep as a result of they didn't understand their levels had dipped in a single day. It's best to always check with a physician if you are experiencing shortness of breath (one other symptom of COVID-19), even when a pulse oximeter says you are in a healthy range, however I found comfort in realizing that I might no less than use it as a reference if I ever skilled shortness of breath. That's not something you can do with the Apple Watch -- Apple says it should be used for wellness purposes only and not as a medical gadget, that means you'll should take the results with a grain of salt and should not use it to display for any sort of disease, which is what I had been hoping to get out of it.

But there could also be other advantages of getting it strapped in your wrist at all times. Very like a pulse oximeter, BloodVitals SPO2 the Series 6 uses crimson and infrared gentle from its new sensor to find out the share of oxygen in the blood. But as a substitute of shining the sunshine by your fingertip, it makes use of the sunshine that's reflected again from the blood vessels in your wrist to find out your oxygen ranges based on the coloration of your at-home blood monitoring. During the setup process you're requested whether or not or not you want to activate SpO2 monitoring, which I did, however you possibly can always go back and disable it in the settings after the actual fact. The very first thing I did after strapping on the Watch was open the Blood Oxygen app. It provides you a few tips about how to get the most effective consequence and you have to relaxation your arm on a desk or flat floor whereas the Watch is taking a reading.