Samsung announced today that it's bringing Irregular Heart Rhythm Notification (IHRN) feature to its smartwatches via the Samsung Health Monitor app. The FDA-approved feature will be able to monitor irregular heartbeats and warn users about potential AFib (atrial fibrillation) activity.
IHRN will work in the background and prompt users to do an ECG check on their Galaxy Watch after it detects that a certain number of measurements are irregular. However, Samsung cautions that the feature is not intended for users who are less than 22 years of age or have known arrhythmias other than AFib.
AFib is a type of irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) that is considered a warning sign for major heart problems such as stroke, heart failure, and other cardiovascular complications. But there are some AFib cases where people do not experience any symptoms.
For comparison, Apple already offers AFib monitoring on the Series 4 and later models that support the ECG app. Samsung said that IHRN will arrive later this year on the models running the One UI 5 Watch update. However, it will land on the upcoming Galaxy Watch devices first and later expand to existing Watch 4 series and Watch 5 series models.
It should be noted that IHRN and the ECG app are not designed to replace traditional medical diagnoses. The company further says in the fine print that "the IHRN feature is not intended to provide a notification on every episode of irregular rhythm suggestive of AFib and the absence of a notification is not intended to indicate no disease process is present."
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