3 ms·

The blood oxygen sensor does work outside the US

andriesm 2y ago
Wow! Really - this is the one patent-restricted feature I was hoping they were going to solve. I'm curious if a decent quality blood oxygen meter could give me additional data about my sleep apnea. I've previously trief several blood oxygen meters ordered from Amazon, and the results were very low accuracy and low confidence, and the only decent ones couldn't log data continuously over time. (At least not when I bought a few different ones a handful of years ago)
- procaryote 2y ago
  Perhaps you could try a Garmin watch or activity band? Afaict they don't have the same geo restriction. They're less smart as smart watches go, but in return they have better battery life
- MartinMond 2y ago
  Did you try the ones from https://getwellue.com/ https://getwellue.com/? In my informal testing against “medical-grade” SPO2 monitors they were accurate and they record all night long.
- buddy27 2y ago
  Oura gives an averaged overnight blood oxygen reading, and gives insight into breathing regularity and any disturbances that it caught. https://support.ouraring.com/hc/en-us/articles/7328398760851-Blood-Oxygen-Sensing-SpO2 https://support.ouraring.com/hc/en-us/articles/7328398760851...
  - Terretta 2y ago
    > averaged overnight Which is the opposite of what's needed to understand whether scattered short term variations are breathing stops to worry about. > regularity Their variation feature does mark moments of (selectable low/med/high) variance, without the medically diagnostic information that seems to get patent claimants going. One would then need to get a pre-ban Apple Watch (as it's a software toggle and the ban was not retroactive watches registered before that date continue to support the feature) or other device to monitor and record the data one's doctor needs.
- eps 2y ago
  Pretty much any modern Garmin will do that really well.
- genewitch 2y ago
  I have an amazfit bip 2 or 3 and iirc I can enable spo2 monitoring "constantly" I don't because mine is always 99 so I shut it off and just test manually. It tracks movement and breathing during sleep. I think it now tracks snoring too, wakeups, rem/deep sleep times, and steps, heart rate, and stress levels. The app is called zepp and I don't know if any of this is exportable but I only care about a cheap watch that has heartrate on it.
unsupp0rted 2y ago
Mine doesn't seem to. I have a US Apple Watch that I use outside the US all the time. Non-US account/app store too.
- plausibility 2y ago
  My understanding is it's like iPhone purchased in Japan always having the shutter noise no matter where they're taking a picture. Apple Watches purchased and activated in USA after the patent lawsuit cut off date won't have the feature enabled, even if you travel or move.
  - gwervc 2y ago
    That's plain wrong. iPhone uses sim data or something to enable/disable that noise. Source: myself with two iPhones bought in Japan and used both there and in the EU.
    - kalleboo 2y ago
      This is a recent change, until about 3 iPhone models ago it worked how GP described it
- jurmous 2y ago
  I was reading it is based on the part numbers and it is a different number for US bought watches. If number ends with LW/A you will not have it https://support.apple.com/en-us/120359 https://support.apple.com/en-us/120359
  - tylrprtr 2y ago
    This is correct. You could order a Series 10 from a Canadian source and have a working blood oxygen sensor.
    - tedd4u 2y ago
      Can verify this works. Use reship.com to get a Canadian mailing address and have it forwarded.
bqmjjx0kac 2y ago
I'm in the US and I totally forgot about the blood oxygen patent fiasco. I have an Apple Watch Series 8 and it continues to work. Maybe it's only newer models that are affected? (Aha, this article says it's Series 9 and Ultra 2 that are affected: <https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/smartwatches/apple-wins-patent-lawsuit-and-usd250-from-masimo-but-it-wont-affect-apple-watchs-mia-blood-oxygen-feature https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/smartwatches/apple-wins-p...>.)

Wow! Really - this is the one patent-restricted feature I was hoping they were going to solve. I'm curious if a decent quality blood oxygen meter could give me additional data about my sleep apnea. I've previously trief several blood oxygen meters ordered from Amazon, and the results were very low accuracy and low confidence, and the only decent ones couldn't log data continuously over time. (At least not when I bought a few different ones a handful of years ago)

procaryote 2y ago
Perhaps you could try a Garmin watch or activity band? Afaict they don't have the same geo restriction. They're less smart as smart watches go, but in return they have better battery life
MartinMond 2y ago
Did you try the ones from https://getwellue.com/ https://getwellue.com/? In my informal testing against “medical-grade” SPO2 monitors they were accurate and they record all night long.
buddy27 2y ago
Oura gives an averaged overnight blood oxygen reading, and gives insight into breathing regularity and any disturbances that it caught. https://support.ouraring.com/hc/en-us/articles/7328398760851-Blood-Oxygen-Sensing-SpO2 https://support.ouraring.com/hc/en-us/articles/7328398760851...
- Terretta 2y ago
  > averaged overnight Which is the opposite of what's needed to understand whether scattered short term variations are breathing stops to worry about. > regularity Their variation feature does mark moments of (selectable low/med/high) variance, without the medically diagnostic information that seems to get patent claimants going. One would then need to get a pre-ban Apple Watch (as it's a software toggle and the ban was not retroactive watches registered before that date continue to support the feature) or other device to monitor and record the data one's doctor needs.
eps 2y ago
Pretty much any modern Garmin will do that really well.
genewitch 2y ago
I have an amazfit bip 2 or 3 and iirc I can enable spo2 monitoring "constantly" I don't because mine is always 99 so I shut it off and just test manually. It tracks movement and breathing during sleep. I think it now tracks snoring too, wakeups, rem/deep sleep times, and steps, heart rate, and stress levels. The app is called zepp and I don't know if any of this is exportable but I only care about a cheap watch that has heartrate on it.

unsupp0rted 2y ago

Mine doesn't seem to. I have a US Apple Watch that I use outside the US all the time. Non-US account/app store too.

plausibility 2y ago
My understanding is it's like iPhone purchased in Japan always having the shutter noise no matter where they're taking a picture. Apple Watches purchased and activated in USA after the patent lawsuit cut off date won't have the feature enabled, even if you travel or move.
- gwervc 2y ago
  That's plain wrong. iPhone uses sim data or something to enable/disable that noise. Source: myself with two iPhones bought in Japan and used both there and in the EU.
  - kalleboo 2y ago
    This is a recent change, until about 3 iPhone models ago it worked how GP described it
jurmous 2y ago
I was reading it is based on the part numbers and it is a different number for US bought watches. If number ends with LW/A you will not have it https://support.apple.com/en-us/120359 https://support.apple.com/en-us/120359
- tylrprtr 2y ago
  This is correct. You could order a Series 10 from a Canadian source and have a working blood oxygen sensor.
  - tedd4u 2y ago
    Can verify this works. Use reship.com to get a Canadian mailing address and have it forwarded.

bqmjjx0kac 2y ago

I'm in the US and I totally forgot about the blood oxygen patent fiasco. I have an Apple Watch Series 8 and it continues to work. Maybe it's only newer models that are affected? (Aha, this article says it's Series 9 and Ultra 2 that are affected: <https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/smartwatches/apple-wins-patent-lawsuit-and-usd250-from-masimo-but-it-wont-affect-apple-watchs-mia-blood-oxygen-feature https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/smartwatches/apple-wins-p...>.)