Samsung says they are still working on the Galaxy Watch Active 2’s ECG support

Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Active 2 alongside the Galaxy Note 10 series in August of 2019. It is a fitness-focused smartwatch powered by Tizen and packing all of the features you might expect from a Samsung smartwatch by now. The device was announced over 6 months ago and has been available for purchase throughout that time. And one of the headlining features of the new smartwatch is its ECG sensor, but support for it has been notably absent since it was first released.

ECG, or electrocardiogram, is a tool that tracks the electrical activity of your heartbeat. Physicians can analyze the ECG output to determine if there are any abnormalities in the heartbeat pattern or rate, such as atrial fibrillation, tachycardia, etc. The ability of a smartwatch to record your heart’s electrical activity could be a lifesaver within this context. However, because implementing this technology delves into the realm of medical devices, the U.S. FDA (and equivalent regulatory agencies in other countries) must approve the use of the sensor in the device. The only other smartwatch manufacturer to bundle this feature on their device is Apple with its Apple Watch devices. Samsung has yet to receive FDA approval for the ECG in the Galaxy Watch Active 2, whereas the Apple Watch’s ECG has been approved a long while ago. It has been over 7 months since the Galaxy Watch Active 2 was released, and we’ve now heard word that Samsung is still working on this feature (via TizenHelp).

This is both good news and bad news as it confirms that Samsung still plans on adding the feature, but they’re letting people down who may have bought the smartwatch expecting a quick turnaround on it getting FDA approval for the ECG feature. The good part, however, is that once it receives FDA approval, then it will probably roll out to all existing devices as an OTA update to the watch’s Tizen firmware. We hope that this feature rolls out to Galaxy Watch Active 2 users soon.

The post Samsung says they are still working on the Galaxy Watch Active 2’s ECG support appeared first on xda-developers.

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