Samsung Galaxy Watch 7’s Sleep Apnea alerts seen on other devices ahead of official debut

Summary

• A new sleep apnea tracking feature is now finding its way to older Galaxy smartwatches.
• The feature was announced back in February, with Samsung gaining FDA approval.
• Some are speculating this new feature could arrive as a tent pole feature for Galaxy Watch 7 devices.

There are a lot of smartwatches on the market, but Samsung has managed to constantly stay ahead of the pack with its Galaxy Watch lineup, delivering some of the most impressive smartwatches you can buy each year. So it comes as no surprise that there’s a lot of anticipation for Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Watch 7 devices that will reportedly make their debut on July 10 during the brand’s Galaxy Unpacked event.

And while there are a number of leaks and rumors being talked about before the upcoming release, there is one feature that’s been overlooked since Samsung did announce it quite a few months back, that is now gaining new traction since it seems to be actually rolling out to Samsung wearables users as we speak. The news comes from some folks on Reddit with a report by 9to5Google, that states a new sleep apnea tracking feature is now being made available to current Galaxy Watch users.

A new feature comes early?

Source: Reddit

What makes this interesting is that Samsung is slated to debut new smartwatches during its Unpacked event, and from what we can gather, this is most likely going to be one of the new key features that will really set its next watches apart from the competition. Samsung has typically made these new features exclusive to its latest devices for a period, before making them available on older devices.

So seeing this update roll out to some users is quite a surprise. It’s unclear just how widespread this new update is, but it will apparently be available for the Galaxy Watch 4, Watch 5, and Watch 6. One interesting part here is that the user that posted this to Reddit shared that they are currently part of the beta, and other users are chiming in that they cannot access the feature. So, for the most part, it doesn’t look like it’s quite a wide release yet. Of course, if you’re in the beta, you’re welcome to give it a try to see if you’re able to access it.

If you’ve never heard of sleep apnea, it occurs when a person begins to have shallow breathing or stops breathing entirely while they are sleeping. As you can imagine, the body won’t let this happen, and the brain wakes up the body to get the breathing back in line. According to Samsung, this kind of behavior can occur up to 100 times an hour, which, as you can imagine, can be quite disruptive to a person’s sleep and ultimately, well-being.

As you might expect, this feature won’t be able to cure the problem, but at least it can make people aware that they are experiencing this and perhaps get treatment. And best of all, no additional equipment is necessary if you own a compatible Galaxy product. While the focus here is on smartwatches, there’s also the possibility that we may see this feature come up on its mobile devices as well. Luckily, we won’t have to wait long to find out.