Apple made an official announcement through a short press release on Thursday about relaunching its “redesigned” Blood Oxygen feature for the Apple Watch. This update is all set to benefit users of Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States. Apple will roll out a new software update later today, which enables this key feature for many customers.
The Blood Oxygen monitor was first introduced with the Apple Watch Series 6, empowering users to actively and passively check their blood oxygen levels anytime during the day. However, soon after its launch, Apple ran into legal troubles. Masimo, a company renowned for making medical pulse oximeters, filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2020, alleging patent infringement.
Due to this, Apple was briefly barred from selling the Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches in the US in January 2024, and had to remove the blood oxygen feature with a software update. Apple resumed sales by turning off the blood oxygen monitor on new watches sold in the US, and carried on the same strategy with the Series 10 when it was released.
Now, after a recent ruling by US Customs, Apple is able to bring back this health feature. This ruling lets Apple turn the monitors on again in eligible American units through the upcoming updates to iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1. In the meantime, Apple had also counter-sued Masimo, and in October 2024, a Delaware jury found that Masimo had actually infringed on two Apple patents.
If your Apple Watch’s blood oxygen feature has been working normally all this while, there could be two main reasons: either you purchased your watch outside the US, or you have an earlier model (like Series 6, 7, 8, or Ultra 1) that was not affected by the US sales ban or the software restrictions.
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