Apple is finally bringing two of its most significant health-tracking features to users in India. The Cupertino based tech giant will from today allow Apple Watch users in India to receive sleep apnoea notifications while AirPods Pro users can test their hearing levels at home using a new hearing test tool
Here’s a detailed look at both the new featues:
Apple Watch can now detect signs of sleep apnoea:
Apple Watch is getting the new sleep apnea detection notification feature which will use the accelerometer in order to detect small movements at the wrist that are associated with interruptions to normal respiratory patterns during sleep.
In case you aren’t aware, Sleep apnoea is a condition where breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, often without a person realising it. Apple says the disorder affects over one billion people globally and frequently goes undiagnosed that can over time lead to increased risk of issues like hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cardiac issues.
With the new feature, Apple Watch analyses breathing disturbance data for 30 days and notifies users users if it detects consistent signs of moderate to severe sleep apnoea. The company says users also have the option of generating a PDF report showing the breathing disturbance trends over the past three months, which can be shared with healthcare providers.
Within the Health app, users can also view nightly breathing disturbance data over one-month, six-month and one-year periods.The Health app also features educational articles which can help users discover more about sleep apnoea.
The tech giant says it developed the sleep apnoea notification algorithm using advanced machine learning and an extensive data set of clinical-grade sleep apnoea tests. The feature is also said to be validated using a clinical study where ‘every participant identified by the algorithm had at least mild sleep apnoea.’
AirPods Pro get a hearing test feature
Apple is also bringing a ‘intuitive, clinical-grade’ hearing test tool to AirPods Pro which allows users to check their hearing from home in around five minutes. The new test is said to be based on a clinical approach called pure-tone audiometry and can be taken by the users just with their AirPods Pro along with a compatible iPhone or iPad.
After completing the test, users receive a summary of their results including the hearing loss levels in each ear, classification and recommendations. The results also include an audiogram and are saved in the Health app and are availagle to share with a healthcare provider.
Apple says the Hearing Test feature is supported on AirPods Pro 2 and later models running the latest software. Meanwhile, the paired iPhone or iPad must be running on iOS 18/iPadOS 18 or later version.
Commenting on the rollout, Sumbul Desai, vice president of Health and Fitness at Apple, in a release said, “At Apple, we believe technology should empower people to take control of their health, and that starts with giving users tools to detect conditions they may not even know they have,”
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