When Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 11 earlier this week, one of its headlining new features was “hypertension notifications.” Since then, it’s been revealed that these will actually be coming to some older Apple watches as well, but regardless, everyone was set to wait a bit. That’s because Apple was still waiting on FDA approval for the new feature, even as it announced the new watch. Now, though, it seems that’s been taken care of.
While Apple initially only promised the feature sometime “this month,” in a statement sent to press just last night, Apple said that its hypertension notifications have now been approved by the FDA and will be releasing alongside watchOS 26 when it launches to the public on Monday. That means no delay for the update—it’ll be ready for the Apple Watch Series 11 at launch, and owners of the Series 9 and Series 10 will get a chance to play with it before then. If your tastes skew a bit fancier, then yes, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is also set to get the notifications at launch, and the Ultra 2 will be among the older watches getting them on Monday.
This is all great news for my family, which does have a history of heart problems. While these notifications aren’t set to replace a full-on blood pressure cuff, the idea is that they’ll help tip you off to potential issues early, so you can know to bring them up to your doctor or pay more attention to them. According to Apple, the way it works is that the watch will use its existing optical heart rate sensor to passively check “how your blood vessels respond to the beats of the heart” over a 30-day period, and then will send you a warning if it detects signs of high blood pressure. After that, it’ll encourage you to log your blood pressure for a week using a third-party cuff, and set up an appointment with your doctor.
In other words, it won’t give you exact numbers, but might let you know if you’re at risk. Given that high blood pressure often goes undiagnosed until it’s too late, Apple is hoping these notifications will help change that.
Personally, I’m inclined to believe it. Earlier this year, my husband actually had surgery to treat a separate heart condition called AFib, and his Apple Watch Series 10 played a big part in detecting and tracking it before it became a problem. As part of his treatment, he’s had to regularly check his blood pressure with a cuff, but we’re both looking forward to the extra data his watch will now give him.
What do you think so far?
Apple says its hypertension notifications were developed using data from over 100,000 testing participants, and then validated using data from 2,000 additional patients. While I can’t guarantee that they’ll work perfectly for you out of the box, that’s a good sign, even if Apple warns that the new feature “will not detect all instances of hypertension.” Interestingly, this follows the FDA’s rejection of a similar feature from Whoop, although that feature purports to provide more data than Apple’s.
If you want to try Apple’s hypertension notifications for yourself, there’s nothing you need to do for now. Simply ensure you have a compatible Apple Watch, then allow it to update to watchOS 26 on Monday and try to wear it as often as you can over the next 30 days to give it ample opportunities to collect data.
