The forthcoming Apple Watch Series 8 will not, as previously rumoured, feature a body temperature sensor, according to the person who first touted the possibility.
The ultra-reliable Mark Gurman of Bloomberg had previously hinted in June the next major body tracking feature would arrive for the Apple Watch 2022 hardware update. That was echoed by the Wall Street Journal in September.
However, in his latest Power On newsletter Gurman has not only suggested sensors – like the body temperature sensor as well as blood glucose and blood pressure sensors – aren’t imminent, but suggested they could be a while away yet.
He wrote: “Don’t expect any of these soon, though. Body temperature was on this year’s roadmap, but chatter about it has slowed down recently. Blood pressure is at least two to three years away, while I wouldn’t be surprised if glucose monitoring doesn’t land until later in the second half of the decade.”
That suggests it’ll be the Apple Watch Series 9, before we see body temperature sensing, at the earliest. The other sensors have been viewed as longer term goals for a while now because the technology isn’t quite there for Apple to include. Most are familiar with the company’s willingness to be second to a feature, if it means that feature works optimally.
Apple is slowly making the Apple Watch a health monitoring and safety device as much as it is a fitness tracker. The company targets multiple generations of people, with its ECG tech and fall detection nous potentially protecting older users.
Right now the company has a powerful advertisement airing in the United States showcasing the rescue of people who used their Apple Watches to contact the emergency services after being involved in accidents.
The health tracking elements are part of a larger trend in the wearables industry. For example, the Whoop Strap’s respiratory rate tracking was shown to be a pre-symptoms indicator the wearer had contracted Covid.
