Non-invasive glucose monitoring on smartwatches has been in the works for a long time, but has rarely materialized; rumors that it might be included in the Apple Watch have been around for years, but so far it has not appeared It appears that Huawei has a head start on Apple

On Weibo, a Huawei executive claims that the newly announced Huawei Watch 4 has built-in glucose monitoring More to the point, this is a non-invasive glucose monitor that does not require additional hardware to operate However, there is a catch

The Huawei Watch does not directly read blood glucose levels Instead, the company claims it measures 10 specific health indicators in just 60 seconds to detect signs of blood sugar levels that are too high Thus, if it detects the danger of high blood sugar, the Huawei Watch 4 will alert the user

Indicators measured by this feature include heart rate, pulse wave characteristics "other," but the company has not revealed what else is involved; the Huawei Watch 4 also has hardware to monitor blood pressure, blood oxygen, and body temperature, which may be involved in the high glucose warning This may be involved in the high glucose warning

Huawei has not bothered to specifically explain this feature In short, there are a lot of unanswered questions about how this glucose monitor detects elevated blood glucose levels and how accurate the system actually is Hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia are serious and even life-threatening problems for diabetics

Therefore, this will not replace traditional methods of tracking blood glucose levels, but may prove beneficial as an additional safeguard Just don't rely on it too much

The Huawei Watch 4, like other Huawei products, is not likely to be released in the US Therefore, Americans will not be able to test this feature for themselves Fortunately, we know that Apple is working on non-invasive blood glucose tracking

It is unclear if this feature will be included in the Apple Watch 9 After all, rumors suggested that glucose monitoring could begin with the Apple Watch 8, and before that, the Apple Watch 7, but this did not happen Apple has made it clear that this type of technology is not easy and may have to wait a bit longer, especially in a small form factor that fits on the wrist

On the other hand, it is good to see progress in providing some sort of non-invasive glucose monitoring for smartwatches Even if we don't know much about it yet, and even if it probably won't be available in the US