In 2021, a report from the Medical Device Network was published titled "Wearables and health tracking: Photonics could reinvent the Apple Watch." The report noted that "Apple was recently revealed to be a key customer of UK tech start-up Rockley Photonics. Apple began purchasing products from Rockley in 2017, and is now its largest customer, having committed $70m in  R&D funding for Rockley’s projects to date. The company was developing technology to monitor blood glusose via photonics that could be integrated into a smartwatch.

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Rockley Photonics filed for chapter 11 in 2023 and has since re-emerged. Rockley noted that it remained "on schedule with all programs including its development of remote patient monitoring technology, and that it continues to see promising results relating to a number of biomarkers, including glucose.

In 2023 Bloomberg's Mark Gurman posted a report titled "Apple makes Major Progress on No-Prick Blood Glucose Tracking for its Watch." In it he stated: "Apple Inc. has a moonshot-style project underway that dates back to the Steve Jobs era: noninvasive and continuous blood glucose monitoring.

The goal of this secret endeavor — dubbed E5 — is to measure how much glucose is in someone’s body without needing to prick the skin for blood. After hitting major milestones recently, the company now believes it could eventually bring glucose monitoring to market, according to people familiar with the effort.

If perfected, such a breakthrough would be a boon to diabetics and help cement Apple as a powerhouse in health care. Adding the monitoring system to the Apple Watch, the ultimate goal, would also make that device an essential item for millions of diabetics around the world." For more on that, read the full 2023 Bloomber report here.

Today, Mark Gurman posted a less exciting piece of news stating that Apple has tested an app this year to help people with prediabetes manage their food intake and make lifestyle changes.  The company tested the service on select employees earlier this year, part of its broader push into blood-sugar features.

Though Apple doesn’t have plans to release the app, the company may eventually integrate the technology into future health products, including a noninvasive glucose tracker that it’s been developing for more than a decade. 

The employees involved in the test needed to validate that they were prediabetic with a blood test. That means they don’t currently have diabetes but may be at risk of developing the Type 2 version of the disease. As part of the test, they actively monitored their blood sugar via various devices available on the market and then logged glucose-level changes in response to food intake.

The idea behind the system is to show consumers how certain foods can affect blood sugar — with the hope of inspiring changes that could ward off diabetes. For instance, if users logged that they ate pasta for lunch and that their blood sugar spiked, they could be told to stop eating the pasta or switch to protein.

The study was intended to explore the possible uses for blood-sugar data and what tools the company could potentially create for consumers. For now, though, the app test has been paused to let Apple focus on other health features. A company spokesperson declined to comment.

Apple's research wasn’t directly tied to Apple’s longstanding effort to build a no-prick glucose monitor, but it could ultimately help inform how the company handles that project.

The noninvasive checker is one of Apple’s most ambitious health initiatives. The idea is to analyze a person’s blood without pricking the skin — a potentially groundbreaking advance in the fight against diabetes." For more on this, read today's full Bloomberg report on BNN Bloomberg.

Besides ongoing rumors of Apple's project, it would appear to remain in R&D stage and nowhere in sight in a meaningful way. Apple is in a race with Samsung which was rumored to be preparing to introduce a Glucose monitoring system for their next-gen Galaxy Watch 7 back in April.  Of course the rumor failed to materialize when the Watch was introduced in late July.  

The stakes are high for such a breakthrough as those with Diabetes Type 2 would jump at the chance of being able to monitor their blood sugar on a smartwatch without the need of needles or super expensive arm devices like the FreeStyle Libre 2 system below (see the video).

The dream of glucose monitoring got shot in the head back in early July when the FCC released a press release titled "Do Not Use Smartwatches or Smart Rings to Measure Blood Glucose Levels: FDA Safety Communication." Whatever solution that Apple or Samsung end up with will have to prove to the FCC that it's deadly accurate to ever get approved.