Apple brings back Blood Oxygen feature to Apple Watch, but there’s a catch

Apple on Thursday announced that is bringing a redesigned Oxygen tracking feature to Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users in the United States. Notably, the tech giant had been banned from importing Apple Watches with that feature by an International Trade Commission ruling in early 2024 and it is now bypassing it with a clever workaround. 

The Cupertino based tech giant will calculate and measure the blood oxygen data on the iPhone that the Apple Watch is paired to and users won't be able to view this data on their wrist. In order to check their blood oxygen levels, users will have to navigate to th Respiratory section under the iPhone's Health app. 

In its announcement, Apple says that a recent US customs ruling has ensured that it can import Apple waches with the new Blood oxygen feature. 

In order to get the new feature, Series 9, 10 and Ultra users will have to update their iPhones and Apple watch to iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 respectively. 

The new blood oxygen feature redesign only impacts the Apple Watches sold in the US after 17th January, 2024 when the ITC ban took full effect. Any previously sold Apple Watches in the US or the units bought anywhere else in the world continue to have the original blood oxygen feature.