Samsung Electronics on the 8th unveiled new features of the Galaxy Watch slated for release in the second half of the year through an overhaul of the Samsung Health app.
Samsung Electronics on the 4th said it will completely revamp the app around the five key health areas of sleep, activity, nutrition, mindfulness, and vitals. The major new features unveiled this time are Vitals, Heart Health Score, Daily Cardio Load, Fitness Index, and Hearing Health.
First, the Vitals feature helps Samsung Health users consistently track their health status and take appropriate action when worrisome bodily changes or issues are detected. If a Galaxy Watch user wears the watch for more than a week and sleeps with it, the watch tracks five key biometric indicators during sleep—heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen saturation—sets a personal baseline, and provides alerts on the Galaxy Watch when there are meaningful deviations from that baseline.
Samsung Health also provides a Heart Health Score that intuitively shows how daily habits affect long-term cardiovascular health. Based on trends in sleep, activity level, body composition, and vascular stress, the feature displays a heart health score and offers tailored guidance. For example, if recent sleep time is insufficient, it delivers tips that help with sound sleep to encourage the formation of positive health management habits.
In addition, to prevent exhaustion or injury during moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, it provides a Daily Cardio Load level based on how much exercise you can do in a day. It calculates the load placed on the heart during daily activities and workouts to help balance training and recovery.
For health-related fitness factor analysis, Samsung Electronics presented the Fitness Index feature. The company said the feature lets users compare key metrics such as heart rate and maximum oxygen uptake with those of Samsung Health users in the same age group, helping identify personal physical strengths and improve weaknesses.
Samsung Health broadened the scope of health management to the surrounding environment. With the Hearing Health feature, Samsung Health measures ambient noise levels with a Galaxy Watch and the earbud volume heard through Galaxy Buds. Based on this, it holistically calculates noise levels and exposure time to determine whether exposure is within safe limits and provides guidance to protect hearing.
It also adds a trend chart to the Antioxidant Index introduced last year, visualizing users' eating habits alongside other health factors and providing more specific guidelines. In addition, a trend chart is added to the Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs), which indicates metabolic health, to check changes at a glance and help users detect and manage health changes that are hard to recognize on their own. It also introduces everyday nutrition management methods through AGEs-related content such as blood sugar and cooking methods.
Park Heon-soo, Head of Team of the Digital Health Team in the MX Division at Samsung Electronics, said, "By analyzing and providing health data measured via Galaxy Watch as AI-based insights, Samsung Health is evolving to help users understand their health status more easily and intuitively." Park added, "Samsung Electronics will continue to expand proactive and personalized health management experiences based on the consolidation of the Galaxy ecosystem and digital health technologies."
The newly unveiled features can be used starting with the new Galaxy Watch models to be released in the second half of the year, and will be rolled out sequentially to transfer products such as the Galaxy Watch8 through future updates.