It’s not just Apple or Withings with a working wearable ECG, as Samsung switches on the tech finally. Kinda sorta.
It has taken some time, but if you’re the owner of a Samsung Galaxy wearable with an electrocardiograph built in, you finally (finally!) have a glimmer of hope on the horizon to have the ECG technology work in your watch.
Launched in Samsung’s 2020 Galaxy Watch models — specifically the Watch Active 2 and the Galaxy Watch 3 — the electrocardiograph feature can check out your heart’s signals much like they might at a hospital, though it’s something that has been missing in Australia.
That wasn’t just a problem with Samsung’s watches locally, though. The Apple Watch has offered an ECG since the Series 4 model, but the technology was only approved for use in Australia this year, meaning both last year’s Series 5 and this year’s Series 6 Apple Watch had the technology, but it wasn’t active locally. This changed earlier this year, however, when the ECG was approved locally.
The same wasn’t true of Samsung’s, however, which received support in Europe for the ECG, but not here.
But that appears to be changing, with the upcoming Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic set to support ECG in Australia alongside blood pressure tracking, two things we’ve not had access to prior.
“We know that Australians want access to the very best in health technology to not only allow them to keep track of their fitness goals, but critically, to be aware of their general health and wellbeing,” said Mark Hodgson, Head of Content and Services for Samsung’s Mobile Division in Australia.
“We believe our Galaxy Watch and Samsung Health Monitor App offer a comprehensive and importantly, an accessible solution to help millions of Australians to help them improve and maintain their general health and wellbeing,” he said.
Samsung’s addition of the electrocardiograph feature is good news to owners of the upcoming Galaxy Watch 4 line, but what about the older models?
When is the ECG feature coming to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 and Galaxy Watch 3?
For Australian owners of the older Samsung wearables with an ECG onboard, it’s a feature that will be activated in the coming months.
Samsung wouldn’t put a specific date on when that would be, but hopefully by the end of the year, Galaxy Watch owners will see a software update that brings the ECG and blood pressure monitoring to their older wearables, finally activating that feature in Australia once and for all.
