Millions more Apple users are about to gain access to some of Apple’s most useful health features as Apple begins expanding these features to reach over 160 countries.
The rollout expands access to sleep apnea notifications on Apple Watch, as well as clinically validated Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features for supported AirPods devices in newly approved markets.
While these capabilities have always existed in regions with earlier adoption, others saw rollouts delayed, likely due to regulatory reasons, which Apple now appears to have resolved.
The expansion matters because it moves more health screening into devices people already use daily, potentially helping them spot early warning signs they might otherwise miss until it becomes too late.
The company, however, is framing these health features as awareness and screening tools. Even with Apple describing them as highly accurate, they aren’t meant to replace professional medical diagnosis.
Sleep apnea monitoring and notifications
Prime among the features is sleep apnea monitoring on Apple Watches.
Sleep apnea notifications use the accelerometer to track Breathing Disturbance, a metric based on small wrist movements associated with interruptions to normal breathing patterns during sleep.
For its detection algorithm to work effectively, users need to wear the Apple Watch to sleep for at least 10 nights within a 30-day window. According to Apple, the algorithm uses “advanced machine learning and an extensive data set of clinical-grade sleep apnea tests.”
Emphasizing its accuracy, Apple says it has undergone a clinical study where “every participant identified by the algorithm had at least mild sleep apnea.”
Apple’s senior vice president of Marketing, Greg Joswiak, said in a post on X that users in Taiwan are also getting hypertension notifications on Apple Watch. It scans your pulse for specific heartbeat patterns and triggers a notification if it detects signs of hypertension.
According to PhoneArena, compatible Watches for this include:
- Apple Watch Series 9 and later
- Watch Ultra 2 and later
These watches must be running on watchOS 26.
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Expanded access to hearing tests embedded inside AirPods Pro
Just as Apple Watches have moved beyond being a mobile clock, some Apple AirPods have also moved beyond being mere audio devices.
In that same post on X, Joswiak said Hearing Aid is now available in Italy, while Hearing Test is now available in India for AirPods Pro users.
Users with access to Hearing Test can test their hearing in about five minutes and get a summary of their results in the Health app. Apple’s hearing loss detection uses clinical-grade standards that play tones at different levels, and users are asked to confirm when they hear them.
PhoneArena also reports that users can access Hearing Aid features for perceived mild to moderate hearing loss, along with Media Assist, which helps improve the clarity of calls, music, and video audio based on a user’s hearing profile.
How to get the expanded features in your region
If you haven’t started using these features, or you’re buying a supported Apple device, check whether your country or region supports them. If your region supports the feature, then you can activate it from the Health app on your iPhone or iPad.
Also read: Pixel Watch users are missing Fitbit sleep data as some Google wearable owners report that sleep stats still appear in the phone app but not on the watch.
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