Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch models could be checking for signs of sleep apnoea shortly, as both companies receive approval to add the feature locally.
Wearables may get new features every year, but that doesn’t mean every country gets them from the first day the update drops, or even from release day.
That was certainly the case with support for electrocardiograph checks on watches, with Australians caught waiting before local approval was granted, and it could well be the same with other features. Sleep apnoea checks, for instance.
Currently in Australia, dedicated gadgets exist to check for signs of sleep apnoea, such as the Withings Sleep Analyser, not to mention its ScanWatch series and their use of algorithms to join the dots.
Meanwhile, practically every other wearable has a sleep monitor inside, and will use that to track light and deep sleep, giving you a gauge on how well you sleep.
Apnoea tracking can be a little more involved, but it is something the makers of the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch have supported overseas. Samsung has technically supported a sleep apnoea feature since the Galaxy Watch 4 models, while Apple’s support for sleep apnoea tracking is technically found on the Series 9 Apple Watch, Series 10 Apple Watch, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, at least overseas. Here in Australia, not so much.
Aussie access for wearables by both Apple and Samsung looks set to change in the coming months, however, with the Therapeutic Goods Administration granting apnoea tracking to both companies in the past few weeks, first with Samsung and then Apple just recently, as well.
While that doesn’t mean wearables from either company will automatically be updated to support the technology, it does suggest sleep apnea tracking will launch in Australia very, very soon.
And it may not even need a new device. It could just run on hardware you may already own.
