Samsung has improved the sleep apnea detection feature on its Galaxy Watches and Galaxy Ring, so that it grades how often breathing is disrupted during sleep instead of only flagging more serious signs. GSMArena reported the change on October 28, 2026, and The 5K Runner confirmed it on October 29. The rollout begins in South Korea in November.
What is new
The earlier version of the feature flagged only signs consistent with moderate to severe sleep apnea. The new version uses an AI algorithm to count breathing disruptions per hour of sleep and sorts the result into three categories: mild, occasional and frequent. That gives users, and the doctors they may show the data to, a clearer picture of where on the scale a person falls.
Samsung's feature does not diagnose a condition. It is designed to indicate that a person should seek a clinical assessment, and the grading adds information to that conversation.
Supported devices
The upgraded grading arrives first on the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, Galaxy Watch9 and Galaxy Ring. The Galaxy Watch7 and Watch8 are due to receive it later through software updates running Wear OS 7.0 or newer. The existing detection-only feature remains available on Galaxy Watch4 and later models running Wear OS 5.0 or newer. The naming of the Ultra model differs slightly between the two outlets, with one writing "Ultra2" and the other "Ultra 2".
How it works
The feature runs through the Samsung Health Monitor app. To produce a result, a user must sleep for at least five hours on two occasions within a ten-day window, according to GSMArena. The age requirement is not consistent across sources. The 5K Runner says users must be 18 or older, while Samsung's 2023 release for the original version said 22 or older, so the minimum age for the new version should be checked in the app.
Regulatory status
Both outlets say the upgraded feature has been approved by South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and that US Food and Drug Administration clearance came in July. We could not verify the FDA claim against an agency record, and we did not find Samsung's English announcement for this update. The 5K Runner says the announcement was a Korean-language post on Samsung's Korea newsroom dated October 28. The original feature won Korean approval in 2023 and an FDA De Novo authorisation in early 2024, and it was available in 84 countries.
Availability beyond Korea
Korea is the only market with a date. Samsung has not said when the new grading will reach other countries, and we found no information on the United States rollout timing or on India. Indian users of the Galaxy Watch should not expect the feature immediately, and should not assume that the earlier sleep apnea feature's availability here carries over to the new one without an announcement.
Why it matters
Sleep apnea is widely under-diagnosed, and wearables have become a route for spotting it. A grade is more useful than a yes-or-no flag because mild and occasional readings can prompt a lifestyle conversation, while frequent readings point to a clinic visit. The caution is that watch and ring sensors are estimates, and a user with poor sleep should not rely on a mild reading to rule anything out.
What to watch next
Samsung's English-language newsroom should confirm global timing and the age requirement, and the Watch7 and Watch8 update will show when older models receive the feature. Independent comparisons against clinical sleep tests would show how accurate the grading is.
Published October 30, 2026. Gadgets365 will update this article as more information becomes available.
