Future Apple Watch may be able to monitor blood glucose without pricking the skin

By Sneha SahaApple Watch already offers several health-related features, like heart rate monitoring, stress monitoring and a lot more. The company is constantly working on new well-being features for its watches. Just a few years ago, it added an ECG feature to select models. Now, there are long-time rumours that future Apple Watch will get blood glucose monitoring support. The latest report adds to past rumours.

It has been many years since rumours about Apple Watch getting blood glucose monitoring have been making rounds on the internet. As per the latest report coming from Bloomberg, it appears that Apple is progressing on the path much faster than one might think.

With blood glucose monitoring support, soon Apple Watch will be able to help diabetic and non-diabetic patients test their blood glucose levels without needing to prick the skin. To test glucose levels without blood, Apple is said to be developing a silicon photonics chip that uses optical absorption spectroscopy and shines light from a laser under the skin to determine the concentration of glucose in the body. Sources close to the development suggest that Apple’s no-prick glucose monitoring is now at a “proof-of-concept stage” but it needs to be in a much smaller size to be able to fit into a wearable. It is said that currently, the prototype device is sized similarly to an iPhone and can be easily attached to a man’s arm.

Apple hasn’t officially confirmed the coming of blood glucose monitor in its future watch, but the company has been working on the project for many years. As per reports, it all began in 2010 when Apple acquired blood glucose monitoring startup RareLight. The company has been working on the project pretty secretly since then. The report highlights that the CEO Tim Cook, Apple Watch hardware lead Eugene Kim and other top executives have been very closely related to the project.

Though Apple has been working on blood glucose monitoring tech for many years, we haven’t seen any real-world product that can test blood glucose without pricking the skin. Reports hint that Apple will take a lot of time before officially launching an Apple Watch with support for blood glucose monitoring.

Before Apple, a few other tech companies worked on blood glucose monitoring tech in the past, but no real products have been announced yet. To recall, in 2018, Alphabet’s health subsidiary Verily discontinued plans for a smart contact lens that would track glucose using tears. On that note, it will be interesting to see whether future Apple Watches will be able to accurately monitor blood glucose without needing to prick the skin or not.