Apple Brings Back Blood Oxygen Feature to Some U.S. Apple Watches

Apple announced on Thursday is pushing out iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 today, reintroducing a tweaked Blood Oxygen feature for certain U.S. users with an Apple Watch.

The update covers Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models that were sold in the U.S. without the feature because of a patent fight. Now, the watch will still gather the raw data, but your iPhone will handle the processing. You’ll be able to see the results in the Health app under the Respiratory section.

This workaround was cleared by a recent U.S. Customs decision, letting Apple bring the feature back in a way that avoids the earlier ban. It doesn’t change anything for watches sold outside the U.S., including in Canada, or for American models that already had the original Blood Oxygen tool.

Apple pulled the feature from U.S. models after the U.S. International Trade Commission said it violated patents owned by medical tech company Masimo, leading to an import ban.

The Blood Oxygen tool measures how much oxygen is in your blood, which can be useful for fitness, wellness, and health tracking. Other Apple Watch health features include ECG readings, irregular heart rhythm alerts, sleep tracking, fall detection, and wrist temperature sensing.