Oliver Haslam on May 11, 2020, 9:28 pm

Apple Rumored To Be Adding Mental Health Monitoring To watchOS 7

If all goes according to plan we can expect Apple to announce watchOS 7 during WWDC next month. We don’t know much about it right now, but according to leaker and YouTuber, Jon Prosser, there’s at least one new feature of note – mental health capabilities.

Prosser was speaking on the Geared Up podcast when the subject of Apple Watch features came up. According to him there’s a chance that watchOS 7 will be able to detect if someone is having a panic attack based on their blood oxygen levels.

What their biggest focus on is right now and I hope it comes this year, it might come next year, but I hope it’s coming to WWDC is mental health capabilities. Where they can take the oxygen levels in your blood with your heart rate and determine if you’re hyperventilating.

They can identify a panic attack before it happens and warn you on your watch. Especially if you’re driving, they’ll ask you to pull over and they’ll offer breathing exercises once you get pulled over.

It’s unknown at this point whether that feature would require a new Apple Watch – presumably Apple Watch Series 6 – but it could be something that is only a software update away.

If Apple doesn’t mention it during WWDC it would stand to reason that new hardware is indeed required. In that case, Apple would likely announce it in September or October alongside a new Apple Watch release.

We’ve heard rumors of an Apple Watch being able to detect blood oxygen levels before, but we’ve also heard some say that the current Apple Watch is able to track it.

(Source: Geared Up)