14 DAY TRIAL // In theory, smartwatches out there should easily take your temperature with a dedicated sensor, and it goes without saying such capabilities would have definitely come in handy during these crazy times.
On the other hand, it’s pretty clear the new coronavirus has caught the industry unprepared for a pandemic, and while some smartwatches do come with sensors able to measure the skin temperature, their implementation leaves a lot to be desired.
The living proof in this regard is none other than Fitbit Sense, the recently launched smartwatch capable of such measurements, only that it does the whole thing during the night, and it doesn’t provide you with an actual value. What the Sense does is to determine a baseline for each individual and only then issue an alert if it notices a value that exceeds it.
Garmin smartwatches, on the other hand, integrate a sensor that can take your body temperature, only that they miss dedicated software that could help it with this thing. Fortunately, the third-party dev community comes to the rescue this time, and someone on reddit says such an app using an approach similar to Fitbit's actually helped them detect COVID-19 early.
“Always trust technology. Based on this and no other symptoms I isolated myself and booked an NHS test. Positive for C19 and rest of the symptoms are here now two days later,” a reddit post that’s getting lots of attention today reads.
Don’t take this app for granted
So in theory, a widget installed on the Garmin smartwatch noticed a spike in body temperature and issued an alert, at which point the user decided to get tested for COVID-19. And as it turns out, the app was accurate, as they tested positive, so the Garmin smartwatch and the widget called FeverMonitor helped detect the virus in its early stages.
There are several things that need to be clarified here. First of all, while this app proved to be accurate this time, you should never take the data it provides for granted. If anything, just make sure you take your temperature using a classic thermometer before anything else.
Then, there are plenty of other apps capable of doing the same thing out there, but the same warning applies to all of them.
You can find all Garmin models coming with a dedicated sensor to measure body temperature in the box below.