Samsung on Tuesday announced that the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 smartwatch will soon be able to monitor the blood pressure of its users in South Korea. The company said in a press release that its Samsung Health Monitor application has been cleared by South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) and will enable cuff-less blood pressure monitoring and tracking when paired with the Galaxy Watch Active 2.

This is not to be confused with ECG support that Samsung is currently working on to add to the Galaxy Watch Active 2. For uninitiated, ECG measures the rate and rhythm of the heart's electrical activity, while blood pressure measures the pressure your heart exerts against the arterial walls when the heart is beating (systolic pressure) and when the heart is resting between beats (diastolic pressure). High and low blood pressure, if untreated, can lead to an increased risk of strokes and other cardiac diseases.

To start using the blood monitor functionality, users will have to calibrate their Galaxy Watch Active 2 using a traditional cuff. Samsung advises this calibration to be performed every 4 weeks to ensure accuracy. Once the watch has been calibrated, users can use the cuff-less blood pressure monitoring anytime anywhere using the Samsung Health Monitor application.

The blood pressure measurement is done through pulse wave analysis which is obtained by Heart Rate Monitoring sensors on the watch. The application then analyses the relationship between the calibration value and heart rate monitoring data to determine the actual blood pressure. Samsung also mentions that you need a Galaxy smartphone for this, and the phone should be running Android Nougat and above.

Samsung says its plans to roll out the application to the Galaxy Watch Active 2 within the third quarter, with a promise to progressively expand the functionality to upcoming Galaxy watches. This last bit is interesting as it confirms that Samsung is working on a new Galaxy smartwatch. According to our own Max Weinbach, this upcoming watch that Samsung is referring to is actually the Galaxy Watch 2 that could launch alongside the Galaxy Note 20.

Samsung Galaxy Watch XDA Forums

So far, the Samsung Health Monitor application has only been approved in South Korea. Since Samsung most likely will need a similar clearance by health organizations in other countries like the U.S. through the FDA, it will likely take some time for the app to make its way in other countries.

Source: Samsung Mobile Press