Hypertension notifications are now available on new and older Apple Watch models using watchOS 26; enabling them on an iPhone is easy with this helpful guide.
Apple introduced two new health tracking features last week during the iPhone 17 launch event’s Apple Watch segment: sleep score support and hypertension notifications. The latter is especially important, as it brings another potentially life-saving feature to the Apple Watch. High blood pressure (hypertension) is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke, but it can appear without any symptoms. Having the Apple Watch monitor blood pressure via the new algorithm in watchOS 26 can lead to faster diagnosis and treatment in adults who do not suffer from hypertension.
It’s important to note that the Apple Watch models that support this feature will not display hypertension readings in real time, like they do when measuring the user’s heart rate or blood oxygen (where available). Instead, the algorithm monitors the way the blood vessels behave over a period of 30 days to determine high blood pressure levels.
