Apple Watch brings Hypertension notifications to India to aid early detection

Apple has activated its new hypertension notifications feature for Apple Watch users in India, designed to alert wearers if the device detects patterns that may suggest chronic high blood pressure. The company says the feature has the potential to identify over one million undiagnosed cases within its first year of availability.

Hypertension affects an estimated 1.3 billion adults worldwide and is the leading modifiable risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. It often goes undetected because it shows no symptoms and can be missed during routine clinical checks. Apple’s system addresses this challenge by running an algorithm in the background that reviews heart sensor data over 30 days.

The feature relies on the optical heart sensor to examine how blood vessels respond to each heartbeat. If the watch consistently detects patterns associated with hypertension, users will receive a notification through the Health app on iPhone. According to Apple, this gives people an opportunity to make early lifestyle changes or begin treatment before the condition escalates.

Apple says the feature is heavily grounded in scientific validation. It was trained using data from multiple studies covering more than 100,000 participants and later tested in a clinical study involving over 2,000 people. The company notes that while the system will not capture every case, it can reach a scale that traditional screening methods often cannot match.

“Hypertension is one of the most widespread yet underdiagnosed health conditions. Integrating opportunistic detection into a device people already wear daily will democratise access for early detection and help people have more informed conversations with their doctors,” says Professor Dorairaj Prabhakaran, executive director of the Centre for Chronic Disease Control and president-elect of the World Heart Federation.

Apple advises that anyone receiving a hypertension notification should track their blood pressure for seven days using a third-party cuff and share the results with a healthcare provider. This guidance aligns with the latest American Heart Association recommendations for diagnosing and managing hypertension.

The feature is available starting today and can be enabled through the Health app on an iPhone running iOS 17 Pro or later.