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The best Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 feature will finally be enabled soon... in one country

Published: May 25, 2020, 4:33 AM

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The best Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 feature will finally be enabled soon... in one country

The Galaxy Watch Active 2 is unquestionably one of the best (if not the absolute best) Android-compatible smartwatch available today, but until we can take Samsung seriously as a challenger to Apple's throne, the Korea-based tech giant has a number of hardware and software limitations to solve.

Perhaps the biggest thing that continues to separate the market-leading Apple Watch family from Samsung's newest Tizen-powered smartwatch is the electrocardiogram monitoring functionality enabled around a year and a half ago. This has already managed to save countless lives and improve many more by providing the sort of insight into a wearer's health that you could previously only get by visiting a doctor's office.

Shortly after Apple changed the wearable device game by putting a groundbreaking ECG sensor on its 2018-released Series 4 smartwatch, rumors emerged that Samsung was planning to follow suit, which technically materialized with the Galaxy Watch Active 2 announcement. But the company could merely promise to activate the feature during Q1 2020, which sadly never happened.

The when, the where, and the how of the Galaxy Watch Active 2 ECG feature

Many users who purchased the otherwise great device anticipating the ECG rollout by the end of March understandably felt cheated, but for what it's worth, Samsung is inching closer to delivering on its promise... several months late... and in one country only. That's certainly better than nothing, although it pretty much goes without saying that Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) clearance in South Korea is in no way connected to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

In other words, we still have no idea when the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 might get the ECG feature stateside... or in any other market apart from South Korea for that matter. Even in the company's homeland, users will need to wait until sometime during the third quarter, i.e. between July and September, to gain access to a simple yet potentially life-altering Samsung Health Monitor app.

With the help of a currently dormant ECG sensor, the app will measure your heart rate and rhythm in search for irregularities indicating Atrial Fibrillation (AFib). AFib can lead to blood clots, heart failure, and stroke, so detecting it early on is of paramount importance for millions of people around the world.

In addition to ECG, the aforementioned Health Monitor tool will also be able to measure your blood pressure in the near future... in South Korea, making the Galaxy Watch Active 2 Samsung's "most informed and convenient health tracker yet."

Don't get your hopes up for the Galaxy Watch 2

Obviously, the ECG sensor will also be present on "upcoming Galaxy Watch devices", with Samsung planning to "progressively expand" the Health Monitor app to these unnamed future smartwatches... at some point down the line.

If you haven't been following the news, you should know the company is reportedly working on unveiling a new smartwatch at roughly the same time as the Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20+.

This could be the long overdue Galaxy Watch 2 or a fitness-first Watch Active 3, looking set to vastly upgrade the battery capacity and storage space of its forerunners among other things. Naturally, we don't know if this bad boy will actually be capable of performing electrocardiogram measurements right off the bat, but at least in the US, that seems unlikely.

Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Series 6 is expected to come with an even lengthier list of sensors and health monitoring tools than its already impressive predecessor, which probably means Samsung still has a long way to go before it can catch up to the king of the thriving wearable industry.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.