Early final yr, Apple made the daring, court-mandated determination to take away the blood-oxygen characteristic from the Apple Watch Sequence 9 and Extremely 2 within the U.S. over a patent dispute with medical know-how firm Masimo. Since then, all new watches (together with the Sequence 10, which launched a number of months later) have shipped with the sensor disabled, eliminating a characteristic accessible because the Sequence 6.
Now, Apple has re-enabled the blood oxygen characteristic for Apple Watch Sequence 9, Sequence 10, and Extremely 2 customers. In a press launch titled, “An replace on Blood Oxygen for Apple Watch in the U.S.,” Apple says, “Customers with these fashions within the U.S. who at the moment would not have the Blood Oxygen characteristic can have entry to the redesigned Blood Oxygen characteristic by updating their paired iPhone to iOS 18.6.1 and their Apple Watch to watchOS 11.6.1.”
Apple says the replace, which arrived Thursday, was enabled by a latest U.S. Customs ruling. To use the replace, open Settings in your iPhone and go to Normal > Software program Updates and observe the prompts. After your iPhone has updates, open the Watch app in your iPhone and choose Normal > Software program Replace, then observe the directions to replace your Apple Watch.
The brand new characteristic will now measure and calculate sensor knowledge on the paired iPhone, and outcomes might be seen within the Respiratory part of the Well being app. Beforehand, customers may take a blood oxygen measurement at any time with the Blood Oxygen app in addition to monitor occasional background measurements. It’s not clear whether or not this replace will take away the power to take immediate readings on the watch.
Older watches that also have the blood-oxygen characteristic enabled won’t be affected by the replace, Apple says.
