Published Nov 13, 2026 9:39 AM EST When the United States Food and Drug Administration cleared the Apple Watch’s Hypertension Notification Feature last year, some saw it as a turning point in the fight against one of the leading causes of cardiac disease. Rather than booking a doctor’s appointment and strapping a bulging cuff around one’s arm, users could instead receive passive hypertension alerts from the watch’s optical sensors to track blood flow patterns.