As far as Wear OS smartwatches go, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch5 series is probably among the best you can get right now, combining a solid design with some pretty useful health tracking and fitness features. With that said Samsung has recently announced that a new feature will be making its way to the Watch 5 series, and the watch will soon be able to use skin temperature measurements to its existing calendar-based Cycle Tracking functionality, which helps users keep track of their monthly periods.
The new feature comes as a result of a collaboration between Samsung and Natural Cycles, and will let users predict menstrual periods based on a combination of infrared technology, as well as basal body temperature measurement. Samsung says that the feature will be available through the Samsung Health app for users in the USA, Korea, and in several European countries.
The company adds that the incoming tracking feature will be able to track measurements for users just moments after waking up, making the whole process automized. Hon Pak, Vice President and Head of Digital Health Team, MX Business at Samsung Electronics, states:
“Consumers can now easily track their menstrual cycle right from their wrist, combining Natural Cycles’ innovative fertility technology with Samsung’s superior temperature sensor to provide a more holistic understanding of their health and wellbeing. This is another demonstration of Samsung’s open collaboration philosophy with other industry leaders to create better health experiences.”
Users can activate the feature by selecting “Cycle Tracking” in their Samsung Health app, and add their most recent cycle information via the in-app calendar, and then turn on “Predict period with skin temp.” Saved readings which are stored from the previous month will then be displayed and will show a user’s period, predicted ovulation, and fertile window. The data is locally saved on a user’s device, and Samsung says that it will be encrypted for privacy and protection.
Samsung says that the new feature will soon be accessible to Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro users in Q2 of this year. In addition to the US and Korea, several other regions including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK will be receiving the said feature soon.
A while back, Samsung announced special editions of the Galaxy Watch 5 series, which add some new features to suit golfers. These include the the “regular” Watch5 Golf Edition, and a Galaxy Watch5 Pro Golf Edition. In terms of design, the Golf edition watches are rather similar to the other Galaxy Watch5 models although Samsung has added a green colour accent which isn’t typically available on the regular Watch5 models, which adds for a nice touch of variety.
