Apple Watch Series 8 takes a unique approach to temperature sensing with a two-sensor design: one sensor on the back of the watch, closer to the skin, and another just below the display, reducing distortion from the external environment.
Chris Velazco for the Washington Post:
In practice, the Series 8 isn’t all that different from last year’s Apple Watch, or even the previous one. The biggest changes here are the new sensors Apple has packed here, like a system to detect your temperature and a specialized motion sensor tuned to detect traffic accidents.
The second sensor is something I hope you’ll never need to use and you can’t really try not to crash a car. (For better or worse, hitting the device on a hard carpeted floor wasn’t realistic enough.) But temperature is a different story.
When you look at other observations next to them, the subtle changes in temperature can sometimes help signal the body change …
There are actually two temperature sensors in the 8 series: one built into the outside of the watch and another in the domed tip that presses on the wrist. But here’s the problem: you can’t use them on demand like you would a thermometer. (In other words, don’t buy one in hopes of discovering the early stages of the fever.)
Instead, those sensors work while you sleep in a process that leaves you with not the raw temperature numbers, but the variation from base temperature. That baseline, by the way, takes five nights to calculate and remains completely invisible to you.
So far, I’ve been pleased with how accurate the watch’s temperature sensing capabilities have been.
Note from MacDailyNews: Night pulse temperature can be a good indicator of overall body temperature. Apple Watch Series 8 sensors sample the temperature of the wrist during sleep every five seconds and measure changes as low as 0.1 ° C. In the Health app, users can see nighttime changes in core temperature, which can be caused by exercise, jet lag, or even illness.
Using the new temperature sensing features in Apple Watch Series 8, users can receive retrospective ovulation estimates. Knowing when ovulation has occurred can be helpful for family planning, and Apple Watch Series 8 makes it easy and convenient by providing these estimates in the Health app. Sensing the temperature also allows for better forecasts of the period.
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