Galaxy Watch Active 2 Blood Pressure Feature Finally Rolls Out In Korea
It's really not surprising to see Samsung repeat itself when it comes to its health monitor features on its wearables. After all, gaining regulatory approval, even in just one country, is a huge victory when it comes to medical features. So when it repeatedly talks about its new blood pressure monitoring feature getting the green light and finally rolling out to users, it's definitely a big thing for the company. Especially when the Galaxy Watch Active 2 is the first consumer smartwatch to even offer that much-coveted feature.
Apple is, of course, the first to come out with an electrocardiogram or ECG monitor for smartwatches, something that the Galaxy Watch Active 2 also debuted with and got approval for last year. Compared to that, however, some might consider measuring blood pressure to be a bit more complicated to do with a smartwatch. As with ECG and other health monitoring features, however, Samsung's implementation is more or less an approximation of how a real BP monitor works.
Users will first need to measure their blood pressure using a traditional monitor while wearing the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The smartwatch uses pulse wave analysis to measure the flow of blood while measuring the blood pressure, the results of which the user will have to enter into the Samsung Health up during the initial calibration. After that setup, however, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 will use that initial data to compare future readings taken by the sensors to determine the user's blood pressure.
After receiving approval from South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Samsung is now rolling out the feature to users in the country via an update to the smartwatch app. The ECG feature that got approved just last month won't be coming until the third quarter this year.
When Samsung will bring those features to other markets will depend on how fast it can get approval for them. The longer it takes, however, the less likely it will happen, especially when new smartwatches like the upcoming Galaxy Watch 3 will have the same features and get more attention.