The new Apple Watch Series 8 is expected to launch at the September 7 event, along with iPhone 14 series, iPad 10, and other products. Rumor mills claim that the next-generation smartwatch will feature a body temperature sensor that is designed for fertility planning and sleep tracking but not for measuring fever.
In 2021, Apple’s partner Rockley Photonics revealed a new full-stack, “clinic-on-the-wrist” digital health sensor system for wearable devices. The new sensor will be able to monitor and measure several biomarkers through non-invasive means like blood pressure, alcohol, glucose levels, body temperature, lactate, body hydration, and more.
And based on Rockley Photonics’ new digital health sensor system, it was expected that the tech giant would introduce new health capabilities in the Apple Watch Series 8 like blood pressure, body temperature, blood glucose, and alcohol levels.
Apple Watch Series 8’s body temperature sensor will be able to measure fever in the future
Previously, Mark Gurman from Bloomberg said that both standard and the rumored rugged edition of the Apple Watch Series 8 will be equipped with a body temperature sensor that will notify the users if they fever. “The new feature will be able to give users a general reading rather than an exact temperature. The body-temperature sensor will be able to alert users if they have a fever.”
However, Gurman has revised that claim. Now, he states the new body temperature sensor will primarily help women in fertility planning by giving them insights into their ovulation cycle and used to improve sleep, by detecting sleep patterns. MacRumors writes that “Apple significantly bolstered the Apple Watch’s sleep tracking capabilities in watchOS 9, so further improvements in this area aided by hardware this year seem plausible.” Gurman’s report is corroborated by Wall Street Journal.
He further added that the tech giant plans to enable the body temperature measuring capability in the future, just not at the launch of the Apple Watch Series 8. Throwing some color on the delay of the body temperature feature, tech analyst Ming-Chi said:
“The challenge in implementing precise body temperature measurement is that skin temperature quickly varies depending on outside environments. A smartwatch can’t support core temperature measurement in terms of hardware, so it needs an excellent algorithm to work together.”
