Samsung smartwatches will soon be able to deliver irregular heart rhythm notifications, with the feature given clearance by the Food and Drug Administration.
Working alongside the ECG functionality already present in the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 4, the upcoming feature - announced by Samsung in a blog post - will instead search for irregular rhythms in the background.
This means a spot-check won't be required by the user in order to spot an abnormal heart rhythm, with a notification only delivered once a certain number of consecutive measurements have been recorded.
It will arrive later this year as part of the recently announced One UI 5 Watch software update, with the rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 presumably receiving support for the feature, too.
The beta for the upcoming software will go live later this month, but, at this stage, it's not clear whether the irregular heart rhythms feature will be a part of it.
Whatever the case, it's another step in the right direction for Samsung's wearables, albeit one that only brings it up to par with rivals like Apple and Fitbit.
The latter launched its continuous AFib monitoring last summer, while Apple's AFib History formed part of last September's watchOS 9 rollout.
Whether anything exclusive will arrive alongside this new feature and others remains to be seen, but it does feel as though Samsung needs to deliver something in order to remain the undisputed leader of Android smartwatches.
With high-powered devices like the Google Pixel Watch 2 and TicWatch Pro 5 being touted to land in 2023, the pressure is on to deliver.
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Conor moved to Wareable Media Group in 2017, initially covering all the latest developments in smartwatches, fitness trackers, and VR. He made a name for himself writing about trying out translation earbuds on a first date and cycling with a wearable airbag, as well as covering the industry’s latest releases.
Following a stint as Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint, Conor returned to Wareable Media Group in 2022 as Editor-at-Large. Conor has become a wearables expert, and helps people get more from their wearable tech, via Wareable's considerable how-to-based guides.
He has also contributed to British GQ, Wired, Metro, The Independent, and The Mirror.