Apple Watch’s latest update drops a lifesaving feature for Indian users: here's how it works

Apple is bringing a new hypertension notification feature to India which will alert users when it notices signs of chronic high blood pressure and encourage them to seek medical diagnosis. Notably, the Cupertino based tech giant had introduced the feature with the watchOS 26 update in September, but the feature is only now making its way to India.
“Hypertension is the leading modifiable risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney disease, and impacts approximately 1.3 billion adults globally. It is frequently undiagnosed because it often has no symptoms, many people do not see a doctor regularly, and even during a clinical visit, it can be easily missed with a single measurement,” Apple said in a statement.
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How does the hypertension notification feature work?
The tech giant noted that the hypertension notifications on Apple Watch will use data from the optical heart sensor in order to analyse how a user's blood vessels respond to the beats of the heart. Apple says that the algorithm works passively in the background, reviewing data over 30 day periods, and will notify users if it detects consistent signs of hypertension.
Apple stated that the notifications will provide users with valuable insights which can help them begin to make potentially lifesaving behavioural changes or start treatment to reduce the risk of serious long term health events.
The company says the hypertension notifications are grounded in rigorous scientific validation and are developed with advanced machine learning and training data from multiple studies that totalled over 100,000 participants.
The performance of the feature is also said to have been validated in a clinical study with over 2,000 participants. The company admits that the notifications will not detect all instances of hypertension but states that it will still manage to notify over one million users with undiagnosed hypertension in the first year alone.
“If users receive a hypertension notification, it is recommended that they log their blood pressure for seven days using a third party blood pressure cuff and share the results with their provider at their next visit, which is consistent with the latest American Heart Association guidelines for the diagnosis and management of hypertension,” the company further noted.
Are you eligible for hypertension detection?
The new feature is available on all watches running watchOS 26, which includes Apple Watch Series 9 or later devices, or Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later devices. You also need an iPhone 11 or later device running the latest iOS 26 interface.
Meanwhile, users must have wrist detection enabled on their Apple Watch in order to receive hypertension notifications.