Samsung announced yesterday that a new WearOS updatethe operating system of its smart watches (which it has developed together with Google since 2021) will include detection of irregular heart rhythmalso known as atrial fibrillation, complementing the other function that has been available in Argentina since the end of last year, which is the performing electrocardiograms and measuring blood pressure with one of his watches.
This new function will be available at the end of the year as the One UI 5 Watch update, and it will reach the Galaxy Watch4 of 2021, the Watch5 of 2022 and, of course, the generation that will be performing in Seoul at the end of July this year. Argentina is one of the 13 countries where this irregular heart rhythm detection tool is approved by the corresponding medical organizations.
The Galaxy Watch4 and Watch5 already have electrocardiograms enabled with the watch; with an upcoming update they will be able to alert the user of an irregular heart rhythm
Along with this update come other features, such as better sleep tracking, better training plans and the automatic activation of fall detectiona function aimed at the elderly, and which has been present in Samsung watches for years, but which will now be activated by default.
It is worth clarifying, as always, that although all these sensors have been tested and work correctly, and allow us to have an unprecedented amount of updated information about the functioning of our body, when in doubt, contact someone specialized in cardiology or clinical medicine general, and you should not jump to conclusions when faced with an unusual result, something that can end up making things worse.
The Apple Watch Series 4 was one of the first watches to include a sensor that allows you to perform electrocardiograms
The Galaxy Watch are by no means the first to offer these functions (the ECG has been available since 2018 on various watches, starting with Apple Watch), but they are the only one that has formal authorization to activate these measurements in Argentina. The apple watchFor example, they do not have the ability to carry out electrocardiograms or alerts for irregular heart rhythm in our country. There’s even a Change.org petition for the company to do so. In the same situation are the Fitbit Sense or Pixel Watchwhich have electrocardiogram and irregular heart rhythm notification functions, but are not available in Argentina:This page shows which features are available in each country. Nothing prevents lying to the clock and setting it as if we were in another country, of course, but it is not ideal.
In any case, the approval of Samsung watches for these functions at the local level is good news, even for those who are users of other brands; To the extent that the presence of these functions is normalized (and popularized), the interest of brands in achieving medical validation in the country will be greater, and we will be able to use them with more peace of mind.
