Apple doesn't ship things that don't work.
In the long arc of technology's promise to tend to human health, Apple finds itself at a familiar crossroads — ambition outpacing execution. The company's Apple Watch, already a quiet sentinel on millions of wrists, will not yet carry the sensors to detect blood pressure or blood glucose, as the engineering required to do so reliably remains unfinished. What arrives in 2022 instead — body temperature tracking and atrial fibrillation detection — speaks to a measured honesty about what is ready, while the horizon of 2025 holds the more transformative possibilities for those managing hypertension and diabetes.
- Apple's most anticipated health breakthroughs — blood pressure and glucose monitoring — have been quietly shelved for 2022, leaving a gap between the company's vision and what it can actually deliver.
- The core tension is technical: building sensors accurate enough to matter, small enough to wear, and power-efficient enough not to drain a battery that already struggles to last a single day.
- This year's Apple Watch will instead offer body temperature monitoring and atrial fibrillation alerts through watchOS 9 — meaningful, but far from the chronic disease management tools many users were hoping for.
- Apple is broadening its health strategy beyond the watch itself, expanding the iPhone's Health app with women's health tools, sleep tracking, and medication management to build a wider platform.
- The 2025 target for advanced sensors is an expectation, not a promise — regulatory approval and continued development setbacks could push these features even further into the future.
Apple is stepping back from its most ambitious health goals for the Apple Watch, at least for now. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring — two features that could meaningfully serve people managing hypertension and diabetes — will not appear when the new watch launches alongside the iPhone 14 in 2022. The company is still working through the considerable engineering challenge of making non-invasive sensors accurate enough for a wrist-worn device, and it is not yet satisfied with the results. The current expectation is that both features could arrive by 2025.
What Apple is prepared to offer this year is more modest: body temperature monitoring, which could help users track fever or fertility patterns, and atrial fibrillation detection rolling out through watchOS 9. These are genuine additions, even if they fall short of the chronic disease management tools many had anticipated.
Apple is also thinking beyond the watch itself. New women's health features, fitness and sleep tools, and medication management are coming to the iPhone's Health app — a sign that Apple views health as a broader platform rather than a single device's responsibility.
WatchOS 9 will also introduce a Low Power Mode to help extend battery life, addressing one of the Apple Watch's most persistent limitations — a constraint that makes power-hungry sensors like continuous glucose monitoring especially difficult to integrate. The 2025 roadmap is real, but it remains conditional, shaped by both engineering progress and the regulatory approvals that any medical-grade health feature must eventually clear.
Apple is pushing back its most ambitious health ambitions for the Apple Watch. The company had been working toward adding blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring to its wearable, but according to reporting from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, neither sensor will arrive this year. Instead, when the new Apple Watch launches alongside the iPhone 14 later in 2022, it will introduce body temperature monitoring—a more modest but still meaningful addition to the device's health capabilities.
The delay reflects the technical difficulty of building non-invasive sensors that can reliably measure blood pressure and blood sugar. Both require sophisticated engineering to work accurately on a wrist-worn device, and Apple is not yet satisfied with the results. The company is still in active development and testing phases for both sensors. If the timeline holds, users can expect these features to arrive in 2025, giving Apple three more years to refine the technology and secure regulatory approval.
What Apple is ready to deliver this year is more modest but still useful. Body temperature monitoring will come to the Apple Watch, allowing users to track their thermal patterns—potentially useful for detecting fever or monitoring fertility. The company is also rolling out atrial fibrillation detection through watchOS 9, the new operating system coming to the watch. This feature can alert users to irregular heart rhythms that might warrant medical attention.
Beyond the watch itself, Apple is expanding the health ecosystem in other directions. The company is developing new women's health features for the iPhone's Health app, including tools for fitness tracking, sleep monitoring, and medication management. These additions suggest Apple is thinking more broadly about health as a platform rather than concentrating everything into the wearable.
WatchOS 9 will also introduce a Low Power Mode similar to what exists on iPhones, designed to extend battery life when the watch is running low. This addresses a persistent complaint about Apple Watch users: the device needs charging daily, and adding power-hungry sensors like continuous glucose monitoring would only worsen that problem. The battery constraint may be one reason Apple is taking its time with these advanced health features.
The 2025 timeline for blood pressure and glucose monitoring is not a guarantee—it is Apple's current expectation based on development progress. The company has delayed health features before, and regulatory hurdles could push these sensors back further. But the roadmap is clear: Apple sees these capabilities as central to the Apple Watch's future, even if that future is still a few years away.
Citas Notables
Apple is not planning to bring blood pressure and blood sugar sensors to the Apple Watch this year, but the company expects to ship these sensors in 2025.— Mark Gurman, Bloomberg
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why is Apple waiting until 2025 for these sensors when the company is already so far ahead in wearables?
The gap between "we want this feature" and "this feature works reliably enough to ship" is much wider than most people realize. Blood pressure and glucose monitoring on a wrist device are genuinely hard problems. Apple doesn't ship things that don't work.
But the company has regulatory approval for other health sensors. What's different about these two?
Scale and accuracy. An ECG or temperature sensor can be relatively simple. Continuous glucose monitoring requires either a chemical reaction or optical sensing through skin—both are finicky. And blood pressure is notoriously variable depending on arm position, time of day, stress level. Apple needs it to be accurate enough that doctors would trust it.
So this is really about engineering, not about Apple being cautious?
Both. Apple is cautious, but that caution is rooted in the fact that shipping something broken would be worse than shipping it late. A false positive on blood pressure could send someone to the ER unnecessarily.
What does the company get out of releasing body temperature monitoring this year instead?
It keeps the health story moving. It's a real feature, even if it's not the marquee feature Apple wanted. And it buys time for the harder sensors to mature without the watch feeling stale.
Is there a battery problem here too?
Absolutely. Continuous glucose monitoring especially would drain the battery fast. The watch already needs daily charging. Adding power-hungry sensors without solving the battery problem would just frustrate users more.