Apple has unveiled an expanded suite of health features, introducing sleep apnea notifications for Apple Watch and an over-the-counter hearing aid for AirPods Pro 2, with availability for sleep apnea notifications in more than 150 countries and regions worldwide.
Apple has expanded its consumer health footprint with a series of software capabilities for wearable devices. The updates, detailed across global announcements and subsequent beta testing releases, introduce new metrics and integrated artificial intelligence designed to monitor conditions that affect billions of people worldwide.
Sleep Apnea Detection and Breathing Disturbances Metric
Among the core additions is a sleep apnea notification system built around an innovative new Breathing Disturbances metric. The feature uses the Apple Watch accelerometer to detect small movements at the wrist associated with interruptions to normal respiratory patterns during sleep. Sleep apnea is a prevalent disorder in which breathing momentarily stops during sleep, preventing the body from getting enough oxygen. The condition is estimated to impact more than one billion people worldwide, and in most cases, goes undiagnosed. Left untreated, it can lead to increased risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cardiac issues.
Every 30 days, the watch analyzes breathing disturbance data and notifies users if it shows consistent signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea. Users can view nightly disturbances in the Health app, where data is classified as elevated or not elevated over one-month, six-month, or one-year periods. For more informed conversations with healthcare providers, users can export a PDF showing when sleep apnea may have occurred, alongside three months of disturbance data.
“Empowering consumers everywhere to have the ability to reliably identify the presence of abnormal breathing patterns during sleep can help uncover a woefully underdiagnosed and serious medical condition such as sleep apnea.”
Sairam Parthasarathy, M.D., University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Sleep, Circadian, and Neurosciences’s professor and director in Tucson, Arizona
The notification algorithm was developed using advanced machine learning and an extensive dataset of clinical-grade sleep apnea tests. The feature was validated in a clinical study where every participant identified by the algorithm had at least mild sleep apnea. These sleep apnea notifications are expected to receive marketing authorization from the Food and Drug Administration and other global health authorities soon, with availability slated for more than 150 countries and regions, including the U.S., the EU, and Japan.
Hearing Health and Clinical-Grade OTC Solutions
In addition to sleep tracking, Apple introduced an all-in-one hearing health experience with AirPods Pro. The combination provides active Hearing Protection, a clinically validated Hearing Test feature, and an over-the-counter Hearing Aid feature. The first-of-its-kind software-based Hearing Aid feature helps make access to hearing assistance easier at an approachable price point.
The Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features are expected to receive marketing authorization from global health authorities soon, with availability planned in more than 100 countries and regions, including the U.S., Germany, and Japan.
“At Apple, we believe that technology can help you live a healthier life, and we’re excited to enable incredible new health capabilities for serious conditions that affect billions of people around the world, while continuing to keep user data private.”
Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s vice president of Health
Health App Redesign and Longevity Features
To support these hardware capabilities, beta testers received access to a Health app redesign. The updated interface responds dynamically to user data using Apple Intelligence, featuring a new Insights tab that surfaces timely health information and a new Longevity tab that analyzes longitudinal health data for deeper insights.
The Longevity tab includes Health Age, a feature that shows users how certain metrics are tracking relative to their actual age. The app also includes movement evaluations that measure flexibility, strength, balance, and more using vision-based AI models on iPhone and heart rate data from Apple Watch.
Because the overhauled app relies on Apple Intelligence, users require an AI-compatible iPhone, a paired Apple Watch, and a device set to U.S. English. Apple confirmed that additional features, such as the ability to order labs from Quest and receive personalized recommendations, will roll out in future betas, and the redesigned app will ship to the public later in the year.