The Apple Watch 8 may not offer new health tracking sensors compared to the Apple Watch 7, according to a new report Skin temperature, blood pressure, and blood glucose readers may instead be slated for release later in Apple's smartwatch roadmap

While we have not yet heard much about the Apple Watch 8, the fall release of the Apple Watch prioritized a design that increased the size of the Apple Watch 7, leading us to believe that the 2022 model will see internal improvements Specifically, we hoped that the new health sensor in the Apple Watch 8 would narrow the gap between Apple and Fitbit's fitness tracking capabilities

However, in Mark Gurman's latest installment of Power Up, a weekly newsletter that often includes Apple tips, Gurman said at least three previously rumored Apple Watch sensors are not ready to make the best smartwatch even better

"Temperature was on the roadmap for this year, but chatter about it has slowed recently," Gurman said

This means that blood pressure and glucose monitoring may be off the table for at least a few more years Wrist-worn blood pressure monitors are already available on some smartwatches (without FDA approval), but noninvasive blood glucose monitoring will probably be more complicated to deploy

Less complicated are skin temperature sensors; the two best Fitbit trackers, Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Charge 5, can read a user's skin temperature

The Oura Ring Generation 3 also reads body temperature to gauge daily readiness and detect early signs of illness Apple may just not be ready to adopt it for the Apple Watch 8

It is also possible that Apple has successfully hidden its plans for the Apple Watch 8 and has not divulged the types of upgrades that customers will see in the fall Apple usually manages to keep some degree of surprise for each Apple event

And while we certainly hope so, we would not get our hopes up Certainly, if the Apple Watch 8 does not progress as one of the best fitness trackers, it may fall behind the competition in terms of sophistication and health monitoring capabilities But as we learned before the Apple Watch 7 launch, it is wise to temper expectations based on rumors

Here's what we know about the Apple Watch 8: There's no reason to believe it won't launch in fall 2022; it will retain the wide display and thin bezel introduced with the Apple Watch 7, and it should also come with watchOS 9 software