Hypertension Notifications Have Been Approved For Australian Apple Watches

Apple Watch owners in Australia can look forward to support for hypertension notifications after the feature was officially approved for use in the country.

Information Age reports that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the country’s medical device regulator, approved the feature for use on the Apple Watch after adding it to the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods earlier this month.

The Apple Watch’s hypertension alerts feature was announced by Apple this September and is part of the watchOS 26 software update. It’s designed for use by adults aged 22 or older, and for those who are not already diagnosed as suffering with hypertension.

It’s also important to note that the Apple Watch doesn’t take the user’s blood pressure (hypertension is essentially high blood pressure by another name) but rather detects other signs that the wearer’s blood pressure may be elevated.

The Apple Watch’s optical heart sensor looks at how blood vessels respond to heartbeats across a period of 30 days. The hypertension alerts feature is already available in more than 150 countries around the world, and those who receive a notification are advised to contact their doctor.

The new hypertension alerts are available to owners of the Apple Watch Series 9 or later, or an Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later running watchOS 26. The watch must also be paired with an iPhone 11 or later running the latest version of iOS for the functionality to work.