Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch 5 series last year with a suite of health sensors, including everything it needed to detect atrial fibrillation (AFib) like the Apple Watch. However, it wasn't allowed to do that until now. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Samsung to provide AFib monitoring on its current and upcoming wearables.
The way Samsung goes about detecting heart irregularities differs from Apple. The Apple Watch runs occasional heart rhythm checks and will report if anything seems amiss. Samsung's approach is more like Fitbit—the device takes continuous heart rate and rhythm readings and alerts the user after several anomalous measurements. Samsung calls this Irregular Heart Rhythm Notification (IHRN).
After getting the IHRN, the watch will suggest you run an EKG, which requires both hands. This can confirm the rapid, irregular heart activity known as AFib, an important warning sign of impending heart attack or stroke. Samsung's watches will save that data to your connected smartphone app so you can discuss the results with a doctor—the watch will remind users for liability reasons that it can be wrong. Going through FDA clearance means you can have some confidence in the results, though.
Credit: Samsung
Unfortunately, Samsung is not flipping the switch on this feature right away. The new AFib detection features will be part of the One UI 5 Watch update. Samsung announced this update last week, citing better health monitoring as the primary improvement. It will support fall detection, personalized heart rate exercise zones, real-time run coaching, and more detailed sleep analysis.
That software will arrive first on "upcoming Galaxy Watch devices later this year," according to Samsung. If the release timeline is anything like last year, the Galaxy Watch 6 will arrive in the fall, around the same time Samsung releases new foldable phones. After the Galaxy Watch 6's release, Samsung will update its existing watches. Although it has not specified models, we assume the AFib features will be limited to the Android-based Watch 4 and Watch 5 devices. Samsung dropped its older Tizen wearable OS when it partnered with Google to resurrect Wear OS. The Android wearable market was an empty shell when Samsung made the change, but now Google's Pixel Watch is reportedly selling even better than Samsung's watches. AFib detection probably won't change that, but new watches might.
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