Can Smartwatches Measure Your Temperature? A Complete Buying Guide

With smartwatches gaining more sophistication with every iteration, what felt like a pipe dream – might just be real. With the advent of BP measurement, an ECG, the ability to measure your stress and steps, can you also measure your temperature using a smartwatch?

Yes, a smartwatch can measure your temperature but only to a limited extent. Compared to a conventional thermometer which is highly accurate and measures your core temperature, a thermal measurement device located on a smartwatch can only measure your skin temperature.

While your skin and body temperature have a direct correlation with each other, no smartwatch yet can be used for diagnostic purposes as none of them have been FDA cleared / approved. However, as time continues and the tech improves, we’ll definitely see more smartwatches with more accurate instrumentation coming to the market.

Can A Smartwatch Tell Me I Have A Fever?

Yes, and no. Thermometers found in smartwatches are not nearly as accurate to tell you whether you have a fever. However, they can let you know about variations in your temperature. So, if you were to flare up and are feeling feverish, a smartwatch can indicate a rise in skin temperature which may mean that you might have a fever.

Besides that though, you won’t be seeing a doctor or any medical professional relying on the readings from your smartwatch to determine your temperature. However, they can serve as great aids when one needs to track their temperature throughout the day.

Best Smartwatches For Measuring Temperature In 2022

Now that we’ve addressed the elephant in the room, it’s time to talk about our picks for the best smartwatches that measure temperature in 2022. 

Fitbit Sense

Battery Life	6 Days
Temperature Measurement Technology	Electrodermal Activity Sensor
Compatibility	iOS and Android
Manual Temperature Measurement	No
Auto Temperature Measurement	Yes (When Sleeping)

While the Fitbit Charge 5 and the Sense both have the same internals, the Sense qualifies more as a smartwatch while the Charge is more of a fitness tracker. Fitbit is the first major brand that has introduced the option of measuring your skin temperature in their products.

However, they have taken a rather unconventional route. Instead of being able to view your temperature on-demand, the Fitbit measures your temperature variation throughout the day at various intervals. It does not allow you to enter a reference value for your core body temperature.

Instead, all you get is the ability to find out how much your body’s temperature has varied in the last 24 hours – particularly when you sleep.. In terms of use cases, this is great for women who are tracking their pregnancy / cycles or for athletes who need to keep their body at a certain temperature. 

When it comes to the tech present within though, that’s where Fitbit truly takes the cake. Besides just measuring temperature, it also lets you conduct an ECG. Moreover, the watch uses an Electrodermal Activity Sensor which detects changes in your body’s skin temperature and relays them accordingly.

Pros:

• Great fitness tracking
• Amazing battery life

Cons:

• Can’t enter your temperature manually

Fitbit Charge 5

Battery Life	7 Days
Temperature Measurement Technology	Electrodermal Activity Sensor
Compatibility	iOS and Android
Manual Temperature Measurement	No
Auto Temperature Measurement	Yes (When Sleeping)

As mentioned earlier, the Fitbit Charge 5 hoists the same internals as the Sense. The only primary differences are – well, the smaller display (which can be advantageous to some when working out), alongside a slightly longer battery life.

In terms of tracking your temperature, the Charge 5 isn’t all that different from the Sense. You don’t really get a metric reading of what your skin temperature is but instead get an idea of its overall variation when you sleep. 

We found the design of the Charge 5 extremely unobtrusive, it blends in with your wrist seamlessly and is light enough for you to forget about it after wearing it for a short while. Besides that though, the watch lets you do an ECG, tracks your heart rate, and is a great companion for your daily activities!

Pros:

• Small, light-weight design
• Stellar battery life

Cons:

• Can’t enter your temperature manually
• Small display can lead to unreadable text in some cases

TicWatch GTH

Battery Life	10 Days
Temperature Measurement Technology	Thermistors
Compatibility	iOS and Android
Manual Temperature Measurement	Yes
Auto Temperature Measurement	Yes

A relatively lesser-known brand, the TicWatch GTH brings in quite the plethora of package for not a whole lot of the price. Unlike a Fitbit Sense, the GTH uses thermistors to measure your body temperature. While the technology isn’t nearly as sophisticated, it does get the job done pretty well!

One added advantage the TicWatch has is the ability for you to check your skin temperature at any point of the day. However, the fact that it uses thermistors means it is highly susceptible to changes in ambient temperature. In fact, sitting in a colder room or checking your temperature in a hotter environment can lead to a very inaccurate reading.

While it obviously cannot be used for any sort of medical diagnosis, it does offer great fitness tracking, a reasonably sized screen, and a sleek and intuitive UI with a design language that greatly resembles the Apple Watch Series 6.

Pros:

• Reasonably priced
• Can measure skin temperature at any time

Cons:

• Build quality leaves a lot to be desired

Amazfit GTR 2e

Battery Life	24 Days
Temperature Measurement Technology	Thermistors
Compatibility	iOS and Android
Manual Temperature Measurement	Yes
Auto Temperature Measurement	No

The Amazfit GTR 2e is a great smartwatch fit a fantastic 24 days of advertised battery life. It actually carried all the pre-requisites for it to be at the top of our list. However, it skimped out on one very important detail.

While the watch has a great ambient temperature sensor, it does not work constantly. So, if you wanted to measure your temperature, you’d need to open the application up, wait for a reading and then repeat the same steps whenever you wanted to get a quick glance. Unlike both the products we’ve mentioned above (which do so automatically), this can get extremely frustrating.

If the only reason you purchased an Amazfit GTR 2e was to have constant tabs on your skin temperature, it won’t really achieve that purpose. However, if you are okay with getting your readings manually, the 2e is an excellent pickup.

 It has great fitness tracking, an extremely gorgeous design that feels unique alongside a pedigree of great smartwatches cementing this watch on your wrist. 

Pros:

• Aesthetically pleasing
• Good build quality

Cons:

• Does not constantly measure your temperature

Does Apple Watch Measure Body Temperature?

No, the Apple Watch Series 7 and lower do not measure your body temperature. Plus, from what it seems, we probably won’t be getting body temperature measurements on the Apple Watch anytime soon. Why is that? The technology, as of yet, seems to be in its infancy and there seems to be no need for it yet.

Since its quite hard to concoct a thermometer inside a smartwatch that can also measure core temperature and be FDA approved, we doubt we’ll be seeing the feature coming to the Apple Watch anytime soon.

Does Samsung Galaxy Watch measure Body Temperature?

No, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 does not measure your body temperature. Just like Apple, Samsung tends to not bring up newer technologies to their products unless they provide them with an exclusive lead or if they’ve already been implemented by their competition.

In this case, body temperature measurement has still not seen the popularity that you’d expect from a feature that’s about to go mainstream. However, compared to Apple, we’ll more likely be seeing the feature coming to the Galaxy Watch sooner than any offering from Apple.