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The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active’s most exciting feature isn’t really a feature
July 31, 2025
WhenSamsungannounced theGalaxy Watch Active, one of the headline features touted on stage is that the watch is the first to feature blood pressure monitoring. However,Android Policerecently reported that the feature isn’t really a feature in the truest sense of the word.
With the Galaxy Watch Active, Samsung uses the optical PPG sensor to track yourheart rateand monitor your blood pressure. Putting it all together is theMy BP Lab 2.0app, which was created in conjunction with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The app translates the data from the PPG sensor to guess your blood pressure.
The problem is that not many people have been able to connect the My BP Lab app to the Galaxy Watch Active. There’s even a16-page threadon Samsung’s forums that is filled with people not being able to monitor their blood pressure with the Galaxy Watch Active.
According toone commenter, a Samsung representative said there’s no news about the blood pressure monitoring and that there’s no timeframe for its launch. Some people in the thread got the My BP Lab app to connect with the Galaxy Watch Active on theirGalaxy S9,Note 9, andS10devices, but there’s no universal functionality.
It turns out that the blood pressure monitoring feature isn’t available for everyone. WhenAndroid Policereached out to Samsung for comment, the company said the feature is only available as part of a study by UCSF. You can opt into the study, though you must have a Galaxy S9 or newer to participate.
Samsung also said the blood pressure monitoring might continue once the study is done. That means you shouldn’t count on the feature being standard across every Galaxy Watch Active.
Android Authorityreached out to Samsung, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
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