Apple Watch 7 killer upgrade teased in new survey

Apple Lookout vii killer upgrade teased in new survey

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

Persistent rumors almost a time to come Apple Lookout'south do good to diabetics and weight watchers merely got a fleck more than actress credence from Apple tree itself.

A Brazilian reader of 9to5Mac was sent a survey enquiring about Apple Watch health-tracking habits and asking which of the current watchOS features are the almost useful. The survey then went on to ask respondents whether they use tertiary-party apps to track workouts track and eating habits and, crucially, whether they use apps to monitor medications and blood sugar levels.

The best smartwatches you tin buy
Apple Watch 6 vs. Samsung Milky way Watch iii: Which smartwatch is best?
PLUS: iOS 14.6 promises additional AirTag tracking, design tweaks and more

It'southward more than bear witness that the company's long-running ambition to launch an Apple Watch with congenital-in non-invasive blood glucose monitoring is shut to beingness fulfilled. While an Apple survey isn't cast-iron proof as such, they have often signalled the way the visitor will imminently turn, every bit everyone who received the survey about quondam iPhone chargers will know.

The Holy Grail of health tracking

Blood glucose tracking has been a target for Apple for years, and CEO Tim Melt was even seen wearing what appeared to be a prototype device style back in 2017.

The long road to it becoming a characteristic is a reflection of both how hard the challenge is, and the importance of getting it right. While blood sugar levels are a useful metric for people looking to lose weight, for diabetics the knowledge is of paramount importance, and a flakey, inaccurate sensor but wouldn't do.

But if the implementation is done right, it could be a game changer — not to the lowest degree because the current medical-form hardware is so expensive. Every bit we explained last year, some 3rd-party hardware is compatible with Apple Picket, but information technology'due south extremely expensive. A continuous monitoring organisation such as Dexcom costs $245 for transmitters and $ane,035 for a three-month supply of sensors, and fifty-fifty a cheaper manual organization like One Driblet costs between $31 and $90 a month, depending on how many daily tests you administer.

Last calendar week, rumors of Apple'due south plans became even stronger when it was revealed that the company was the biggest customer of Rockley Photonics, a U.K. business concern that specializes in accurate sensors for various blood signals including glucose and alcohol levels. In its SEC documents, Rockley claims that its lasers offer "upward to 1,000,000 times college resolution, one,000 times higher accuracy and 100 times broader range in wavelengths" than existing vesture LEDs.

That all sounds very promising, but the big question is whether this implementation will make the Apple tree Picket 7, or whether it won't arrive until the 2022 version of the wearable. Rockley CEO Andrew Rickman said he expected the applied science to exist in wearables adjacent year, which certainly makes information technology sound like an Apple tree Watch 8 matter.

Just that'south non to say that Apple won't have something in place for the Apple tree Lookout man seven. It wouldn't be the first fourth dimension the company had introduced a basic feature and then improved information technology over subsequent generations, after all.

More:Assistance me, Tom's Guide – I demand an Apple Picket to monitor my diabetes

Freelance correspondent Alan has been writing most tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional mag too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably discover him tackling his always-growing games excess. Or, more than likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth fourth dimension.