Apple Watch 8 may skip on body temperature sensor

According to Bloomberg analyst Mark Gurman’s monthly newsletter, Apple’s next Watch 8 series is expected to include a slew of additional health sensors and tracking options, including a body temperature sensor. According to the new information, Apple will delay adding the body temperature sensor for another year, while other rumoured capabilities such as on-device heart rate measures and blood glucose levels are slated to arrive later in the decade.

Apple Watches with a tough sports version and an all-new entry-level model are still thought to be in the works. According to the Gurman research, Apple will focus on design overhauls and battery life improvements in future Apple Watch generations as heart rate and blood glucose technology evolves and becomes suitable for mass use.

Gurman, on the other hand, has reversed his position in his most recent Power On newsletter. “Don’t anticipate any of these soon, though,” Gurman wrote on the Series 8’s potential for body temperature sensing, blood glucose monitoring, and blood pressure monitoring. Body temperature was on the agenda for this year, but talk about it has halted recently. Blood pressure monitoring will take at least two to three years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if glucose monitoring doesn’t arrive until later in the decade.”

This makes a lot of sense in terms of blood pressure and blood glucose. While noninvasive, cuffless blood pressure monitoring in wearables has made significant progress, the technology simply isn’t there yet. The same is true when it comes to blood glucose monitoring. The functionality was rumoured for the Series 7 as well as Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4, but it never came to fruition. The technology does exist in a primitive version — a prototype from Japanese business Quantum Operation was on display at CES 2021 — but it’s far from consumer-ready. Body temperature sensors appeared to be the most likely of the speculated features, as they’re already available in a number of other consumer wearables, including ones from competitors like Fitbit. In fact, researchers employed body temperature sensors in wearables to see if smartwatches could detect COVID-19 in 2020, which drew a lot of interest.

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