Samsung smartwatches in South Korea get blood pressure tracking

Samsung is rolling out ECG support to its smartwatches later this year in South Korea as well.

Following the rollout, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 can track blood pressure but it won’t work as a full-on replacement for traditional blood pressure cuffs. You will need those cuffs to calibrate the app every four weeks. (Samsung)

Samsung has rolled out blood pressure tracking for the Galaxy Watch Active 2 through the Health Monitor app in South Korea. This rollout is ahead of schedule as Samsung had previously said that the Health Monitor app would be released in the third quarter of 2020 following the approval from South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Following the rollout, the Galaxy Watch Active 2 can track blood pressure but it won't work as a full-on replacement for traditional blood pressure cuffs. You will need those cuffs to calibrate the app every four weeks.

This is actually a good call since optical-based sensors can technically only measure a change in blood pressure instead of being able to give an accurate reading. Keeping a traditional reading (one from the cuffs) as baseline, the Samsung Health Monitor app should be helpful in tracking trends over time and in between visits to the doctor.

Samsung has also announced that the Health Monitor app will support ECG monitoring in South Korea later this year.

The company has not announced if it is going to roll out the blood pressure tracking or even the ECG monitor outside South Korea as of now. To roll out these features in any other country would require approval from local health authorities.