Today, Samsung has proudly announced that it’s massively expanding the availability of sleep apnea detection on its Galaxy Watches. This will now be available in 36 more countries (34 of which are in Europe), bringing the global total to 70 countries and territories.
Here’s the full list: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norfolk Island, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Réunion, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen.
The feature works on Galaxy Watch4 and later models running Wear OS 5.0 and later versions, but the main catch is this – your watch has to be paired to a Samsung smartphone for this to work. The phone needs to be on Android 12 or later too. This will also stop working if you travel to an unsupported country.
Sleep apnea is a common yet serious medical condition that causes you to stop breathing while you’re asleep, which can result in disruptions in oxygen supply, lower sleep quality, and other health complications – in its press release, Samsung lists hypertension, cardiac disorders, stroke, and cognitive disorders.
The sleep apnea feature uses Samsung’s BioActive Sensor to measure blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) during sleep. It analyzes changes in SpO2 levels related to apnea and hypopnea patterns, and estimates the probability that you have apnea, then informs you of that.