How To Use The Blood Oxygen App On Apple Watch

By José Adorno
Using the Blood Oxygen app on Apple Watch Ultra 2 José Adorno for BGR

After almost two years, Apple has finally redesigned and relaunched the Blood Oxygen feature on Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the United States. This feature tracks the percentage of oxygen your red blood cells carry from your lungs to the rest of your body, and it can be incredibly useful to help you understand your overall wellness.

With apps like Gentler Streak, having the blood oxygen measurement helps you understand your readiness to tackle a new day of workouts or to give you a heads up if you're about to get sick. While this feature isn't FDA approved like the ECG app on the Apple Watch, it's still a worthwhile wellbeing tool, and we're going to tell you how to get the most use out of it.

Whether you ignored the Blood Oxygen app on Apple Watch before it was removed or you were thrilled to see in return in iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1, we are going to teach you how to use the feature on your Apple Watch and how to find the relevant metrics on your iPhone.

How to check your blood oxygen levels

Apple Watch Series 10's new larger display Christian de Looper for BGR

As long as your iPhone and Apple Watch are updated to the latest versions of iOS and watchOS, it's easy to take a blood oxygen measurement. That said, remember that you'll need to own an Apple Watch Series 6 or newer in order to use the app. Once you Follow the steps below:

  • On your Apple Watch, open the Blood Oxygen app.
  • Make sure the watch isn't too low on your wrist — the band should be snug, but comfortable.
  • Keep your watch facing up and try not to move (it's often easiest to rest your wrist on a table).
  • Tap Start and wait 15 seconds.
  • Your blood oxygen levels should appear on the screen.

The data will automatically be saved in the Health app on your connected iPhone. To check that information on your iPhone, you'll need to open the Health app, tap the Browse tab, and then tap Respiratory > Blood Oxygen. You'll see all the relevant health details, including a few additional insights, such as your blood oxygen range over the course of several days. In the Apple Watch Series 11, which is expected to debut next month alongside the iPhone 17, Apple is rumored to be adding Blood Pressure monitoring as well.

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