How to check blood oxygen on Apple Watch

Apr 20, 2023

Here's how to setup blood oxygen monitoring and how to check your SpO2 levels on Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch Series 6, Watch Series 7, Watch Series 8 and Watch Ultra all feature a pulse oximeter that allows them to non-invasively measure the percentage of oxygen being carried by red blood cells from the lungs to the rest of your body, giving you an indication of your overall health.

It's commonly referred to as blood oxygen levels or SpO2, and typical blood oxygen levels are somewhere between 95 per cent and 100 per cent for the majority of people, though not all.

You can read more about how blood oxygen monitoring works in our separate feature, but if you have an Apple Watch Series 6, Series 7, Series 8 or Watch Ultra and you want to know how to get an instant blood oxygen level measurement, as well as how to set it up and how to find previous readings, you're in the right place.

It's got a great design, heaps of sensors, and more features than you'll probably know what to do with. While its battery life isn't the best on the smartwatch market, fast charging makes charging it daily a little less painful.

You'll need to make sure you are over 18, you have the Apple Watch Series 6, Watch Series 7, Watch Series 8 or Watch Ultra you are in a compatible country (see the bottom of this feature) and you are have an iPhone 6S or later.

You'll also need to make sure you have set up the Blood Oxygen app - you can read the section further down this feature if you haven't set it up yet.

If you tick all the requirements above, then follow these steps to take a blood oxygen measurement:

All blood oxygen measurements taken by the Apple Watch Series 6, Series 7, Series 8 and Watch Ultra whether on demand on background measurements, appear in the Health app on iPhone.

To find your blood oxygen measurements, follow the steps below:

If you haven't used the blood oxygen sensor on your Apple Watch yet, these steps will help you get setup. The Blood Oxygen app is installed following the setup instructions below. If you accidentally delete it, you can find it in the App Store on your Apple Watch.

The Blood Oxygen app is only available in some countries and regions. You can see the full list of countries on the Apple website here.

Britta is the Deputy Editor of Pocket-lint and has been a part of the team, covering consumer technology since 2012.You'll often see her name on some of our biggest features, including many of the versus articles and the rumour round ups, but she is also responsible for ensuring all the other great features from other members of the team cover off everything you might want to know about.