Samsung Galaxy Watch may soon measure your antioxidant score daily
Samsung is gearing up to release its Antioxidant Index feature later this year. It will live inside the Samsung Health app, and now we know we have a better idea on how it will work – thanks to a leak.
Antioxidants get their own metric
Back in January, Samsung teased a new feature during its Unpacked event. The company didn’t go into much detail, other than to say it would track your antioxidant levels and offer some kind of daily insight. Fast forward a few months, and firmware sleuths have now uncovered how this system is coming together.
The source of the leak is the firmware for One UI 8 Watch, posted by @DevOfIpos and later examined by Android Authority. Buried in that code is the clearest picture yet of what Samsung is planning.
According to the APK teardown, the upcoming feature is called the Antioxidant Index and it ties directly into your Galaxy Watch. Specifically, the feature will use a health sensor on the timepiece to perform non-invasive checks for beta-carotene, one of the better-known antioxidant markers.
What’s notable here is that the process doesn’t appear to rely on food tracking or third-party integrations. Instead, Samsung is aiming to measure levels directly through the skin.
While the mechanics behind that haven’t been disclosed, the uncovered screenshot suggests you will need to remove the watch from your wrist to take a reading. So these will be on-demand measurements, rather than something that is automatically captured.
What the new feature actually tells you
The interface for the Antioxidant Index has also surfaced. A simple gauge shows your latest reading, your daily average, and a color-coded rating like “Optimal” or “Moderate.” A tap of the “Measure” button kicks off the scan, and results show up a few seconds later. Which means these will be on-demand readings, rather than something tracked automatically.
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Samsung has explicitly stated that this feature is not intended for diagnosing medical conditions. That disclaimer shows up in the leaked screenshots, as well.
What we still don’t know
Samsung hasn’t confirmed which watches will support the feature, but it’s clear One UI 8 Watch is required. That narrows it down to newer devices, and if the Galaxy Watch 8 does launch around August as expected, it would make sense to use that as a hardware anchor.
Until official details drop, there are a few big unknowns. One is how reliable these readings will be. Measuring something like beta-carotene optically is ambitious, and there’s a chance it could be heavily influenced by skin tone, hydration, or ambient light.
The feature is scheduled to roll out in the second half of 2025, so we’re not far off from seeing it in action. If Samsung can pull it off with reasonable accuracy, this could offer a new kind of health signal.
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