Apple released iOS 26.4 beta 1 yesterday and the update includes a number of changes and new features. In addition to everything we’ve covered so far, there are two specific changes to the Health app: updates to the Vitals metric and sleep tracking.
Apple Health adds two new insights with iOS 26.4
Apple removed the Blood Oxygen feature from the Apple Watch in January 2024 due to a patent dispute with health technology company Masimo. The company then launched a “redesigned” version of the feature last August, which allows users to take a blood oxygen reading on their Apple Watch and then view the result on their iPhone. The result cannot be displayed on the Apple Watch itself.
Even after launching the “redesigned” version of the feature, blood oxygen was still not present in the Vitals overview in the Health app on the iPhone. You could just view it as a separate metric as he noted MacRumors.
With iOS 26.4, Apple added blood oxygen readings back to the Vitals chart in the Health app. This is how it worked before the feature was removed in January 2024. This means you can now view five metrics in the same Vitals chart: heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen, and sleep duration.
Sleep tracking
Speaking of sleep, iOS 26.4 also adds a new sleep metric to the Health app: you can now see a breakdown of your sleep over the past two weeks. In the new sleep highlight, you can see your average sleep time along with your past sleep time for comparison.
Read more about what’s new in iOS 26.4 beta 1 in our full guide. The update is now available to developers and public beta testers.
My favorite Apple Watch links:
Watch Chance: Threads, Bluesky, Instagram and Mastodon.
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