Apple Watch Blood Oxygen Feature Is Back, But New Lawsuit Could Change That
For millions of Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10 and Ultra 2 users who didn’t have the blood oxygen monitoring (SpO2) feature on their smartwatch, last week’s software updates offered a key workaround. Now, medical technology company Masimo has filed a lawsuit. Here’s what it all means.
Blood oxygen measurement on Apple Watch Series 9.
AFP via Getty Images
As you may know, Apple Watches since Series 6 (with the exception of the Apple Watch SE) have included a blood oxygen monitoring feature. However, a lawsuit from Masimo ended up with Apple disabling the feature in early January 2024 for all compatible watches sold in the U.S. Apple Watches outside the States are unaffected and the feature has always worked.
Earlier this month, Apple released two software updates, one for Apple Watch and one for iPhone. This essentially introduced a workaround. Instead of the SpO2 reading showing up on the watch, now the newly restored blood oxygen app records data which is transmits to the paired iPhone for calculation and interpretation. The result shows up in the iPhone’s Health app.
This change was enabled by a ruling from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. However, Masimo has now filed a lawsuit against Customs and Border Protection.
“US Customs and Border Protection unlawfully let Apple Inc. reactivate a blood-oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches that infringes patents for the technology, Masimo Corp. said in a federal lawsuit,” Bloomberg Law reported.
The complaint, filed on Aug. 20, says that according to Masimo, the CBP exceeded its authority “in an Aug. 1 internal advice ruling that overturned its own January decision without notice or input from Masimo.”
Masimo has asked the court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the CBP ruling, claiming that the decision from January 2025, which allowed imports of Apple Watches to the U.S. if oxygen tracking was disabled. For reference, Apple Watches are built outside the U.S. so all are imported.
So, what does this mean? Well, if you have an Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10 or Ultra 2 and you’ve updated to the latest software, I suspect your blood oxygen feature is safe. It seems unlikely to me Apple will be forced to issue an update to remove it again.
But Apple will be keen to get this sorted before the next Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 release date in the coming days — read this for when they’re expected.