Huawei Watch GT 7 can now assess diabetes risk in selected markets

Huawei is rolling out a Diabetes Risk Study to Watch GT 7 and GT 7 Pro owners in selected markets. The watch uses PPG data collected over several days to estimate diabetes risk, but it does not measure blood glucose.

Huawei’s Watch GT 7 product page says the feature requires between three and 14 days of continuous wear. It arrives through an OTA update and users need to join the study through the Huawei Research app.

How the diabetes risk study works

So how does this actually work?

The Watch GT 7 uses pulse-wave signals collected by its PPG sensor, so the same tech that monitors hear rate. It then combines this with information such as age, sex, height and weight. After enough data has been collected, the system produces a diabetes risk assessment.

Now Huawei is not claiming the watch measures glucose directly. There is no glucose value in mmol/L or mg/dL, and the company says the feature cannot be used to monitor diabetes treatment. But it could flag up an issue that you could investigate further.

The rollout appears to be research-led rather than a standard health feature available everywhere. In Malaysia, Huawei says the study is initiated by Universiti Malaya, while availability depends on region.

We already flagged the high blood sugar risk assessment when looking at the Watch GT 7 generation. The latest regional rollout gives a clearer picture of how it actually works.

Huawei has explored similar ideas before. Earlier this year, the company brought diabetes risk alerts to the Watch GT 6 Pro, again using smartwatch sensor data to identify patterns linked with elevated risk.

The Watch GT 7 takes that approach into Huawei’s latest mainstream watch range. Both the standard GT 7 and GT 7 Pro are included.

Huawei is also working on a blood sugar device

The more interesting context is what Huawei has said about its next step. Just a few days ago Huawei Consumer Business Group CEO confirmed that the company plans to release a blood sugar testing device. Apparently, it’s been work in progress for the past four years.

Huawei has not said what that device will look like or how it will measure blood sugar. It could be a watch, another wearable or a separate health product.

Huawei is clearly pushing further into blood sugar-related health tracking, both through existing smartwatch sensors and new dedicated hardware. Hopefully, we’ll see exciting developments here in the coming months.