Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch 9's health features on 4 June, seven weeks before the watch itself. They shipped as an update to the Samsung Health app rather than as new sensors, which is why four of them landed on one day.
Daily Cardio Load adds up the strain a workout puts on your heart, then tells you how much recovery you need. Wear the watch through a loud commute and Hearing Health tracks the noise around you and reports back on it. Heart Health Score folds sleep, stress, activity and body composition into one number. The fourth, Fitness Index, takes your heart rate, VO2 max (how much oxygen your body can use while exercising) and daily step count, then ranks you against other people in your age group.
At Unpacked on 22 July, Samsung built the watch's health experience around the app, grouping it into five pillars: Activity, Mindfulness, Nutrition, Sleep and Vitals.
Three of the four are new, and the fourth replaces a feature Samsung is retiring.
Heart Health Score takes over from Vascular Load, the metric that arrived with the Galaxy Watch 8 last year. Samsung is switching it off this year.