Samsung made the announcement that it has been granted clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an upcoming irregular heart rhythm detection function that will be available on its Galaxy Watches. This is designed to function in tandem with the company’s EKG feature, which has received clearance from the FDA, and will debut on the company’s next Galaxy Watch 6 model.
In terms of its functionality, it is more analogous to Fitbit’s passive AFib monitoring feature, which was released the year before, than it is to the EKG spot-checks that Apple announced with the Series 4 in 2018. This is because Fitbit’s feature monitors for AFib on a continuous basis, whereas Apple’s feature only checks for it on demand. In contrast to the EKG measures, the user is not required to take any action in response to the notifications of an abnormal heart rhythm. Once activated, the Galaxy Watch will check for irregular heart rate rhythms in the background and will only inform users after a set number of consecutive readings have determined that the user has an unusual heart rate rhythm. After that, those users will be prompted to perform an electrocardiogram.
The function will be included in the future update to One UI 5 Watch, which Samsung first revealed towards the end of the previous week. According to a press release issued by Samsung, the feature would “first come to the upcoming Galaxy Watch devices later this year” before being rolled out to earlier iterations of the Galaxy Watch, most likely the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 series. In the latter part of this month, Samsung intends to make available a One UI 5 Watch beta to consumers who already have a Galaxy Watch 4 or 5, but it is still unknown whether or not this will be a part of the beta. touch with Samsung to obtain further clarity but did not receive a response right away.
In general, the new capability fits in quite neatly with Samsung’s intention to market the Galaxy Watch devices as more comprehensive health aids. Having said that, it is rather obvious that Samsung is still trying to play a little bit of catch-up.
The majority of the upgrades to One UI 5 Watch, such as personalized heart rate zones and better emergency SOS, are attempts to narrow the gap between themselves and other manufacturers of smartwatches. It is possible to say the same thing regarding this circumstance. As was said, Fitbit debuted a feature with very comparable functionality a year ago. With the release of watchOS 9, Apple also included an FDA-cleared AFib History function. This feature enables users with abnormal heart rate rhythms to monitor the amount of time they spend in AFib and view it on their Apple Watch.
It should come as no surprise that Samsung is currently hyping up its technology. The pressure is starting to mount. The Google Pixel Watch has been selling so well that it has risen to the position of No. 2 in the market; it is possible that the release of the Pixel Fold will only add to the competition in this space. Even though Wear OS 3 got off to a shaky start, it’s probable that we’ll hear some updates about the platform during this week’s Google I/O. The market for Android-powered smartwatches hasn’t been this interesting in quite some time. It would appear that the present moment is as good a time as any to quietly remind people that the next generation of Galaxy Watches is on the horizon.
Read More: Samsung One UI 5 Watch is Coming Out
Stay Connected!
