Apple Watch To Alert Users On Hypertension, CEO Tim Cook Announces

Following approval from the US FDA for hypertension detection on its Apple Watch early this month, the tech giant has said that it is rolling out a new feature on its wearable gadget that will alert users to signs of hypertension, a “silent” condition affecting over 1.3 billion adults worldwide.

This will benefit over millions of people who already strap the Apple Watch on their wrist. It's said to be potentially life-changing health information delivered through hardware they're already wearing.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said “the feature is expected to notify more than one million people, marking a major step in the company’s efforts to use wearable technology for preventive health monitoring.”

The new hypertension notifications feature, available on Apple Watch Series 9, Series 11, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Ultra 3, alerts users if signs of chronic high blood pressure are detected.

“Hypertension is a leading risk factor for heart attack and stroke, affecting more than a billion adults worldwide. With our latest Apple Watch lineup, we were proud to introduce hypertension notifications, developed using large-scale machine learning models. We expect to notify over one million users of this life-threatening condition,” Cook said during Apple’s Q4 2025 earnings call.

He added that artificial intelligence and advanced machine learning underpin health features such as heart rate monitoring, fall detection, crash detection, and more.

Hypertension, often called a silent condition, frequently remains undiagnosed as it shows no symptoms. The Apple Watch uses its optical heart sensor to analyse how a user’s blood vessels respond to heartbeats. The algorithm works in the background over 30-day periods and alerts users if it detects consistent signs of high blood pressure.

According to World Health Organization estimates, nearly 1.4 billion adults aged 30–79 were living with hypertension in 2024, yet around 44% — roughly 600 million people — remain unaware of their condition, quietly carrying a serious health risk they do not even know exists.

Cook also highlighted sleep tracking improvements. “Sleep Score provides an intuitive way for users to understand their sleep quality and find ways to improve it,” he said.