Blood oxygen tracking is set to return to Apple Watches in the US – but a new lawsuit could block it

• Apple Watch fans are due to get the blood oxygen feature back on certain watches, after a lawsuit by health tech company Masimo
• The feature now involves a slight workaround, in which the measurement can only be displayed on an iPhone
• Masimo is suing the U.S. Customs Department for allowing the workaround to go ahead

Apple Watch users in the US are finally about to get a health feature back, as the watchOS 26 public beta launched with access to the blood oxygen feature – sort of.

The feature was removed for US fans after health technology company Masimo sued Apple, claiming it willfully violated Masimo's intellectual property by way of its patented blood oxygen feature. As a result, the feature was temporarily disabled on the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

However, a workaround meant that the Apple Watch was able to add the feature back in via its new watchOS 26 software, and it's already arrived on some watches participating in the Apple public beta program.

The workaround is that while the Apple Watch can record blood oxygen, it can only present that information in the Health app on an iPhone.

Masimo doesn't like this and has filed another lawsuit – this time targeting US Customs, rather than Apple itself. Masimo is suing the US government for (according to the lawsuit via this BGR report), "unlawfully let[ting] Apple Inc. reactivate a blood-oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches that infringes patents for the technology".

Will I get blood oxygen tracking on my Apple Watch?

We don't know. At the moment, if you're signed up to the public beta program, you should already have the feature.

Whether it will survive until the wider rollout in September, or whether the US government will feel pressured by this suit to take action and ban the workaround, remains to be seen.

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