The redesigned model of the function shall be obtainable on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 after customers set up the watchOS 11.6.1 replace on their watches and the iOS 18.6.1 replace on their paired iPhones.
Apple says that watches exterior the US will not be affected by the replace, since they had been by no means topic to the US import ban within the first place. It additionally will not have an effect on Apple Watches bought within the US earlier than the import ban went into impact—Apple by no means eliminated the function from watches it had already bought, so in case you purchased a Series 9 or Ultra 2 watch within the fall of 2023 or in case you’re nonetheless utilizing an older watch with the blood oxygen monitoring function, the updates will not change something for you.
Masimo initially sued Apple over the blood oxygen monitoring function in January of 2020. According to Masimo, Masimo and Apple had initially met in 2013 to discuss a possible partnership or acquisition, however Apple as an alternative poached Masimo’s engineers to implement the function by itself with out Masimo’s involvement.