The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is the company's next full-featured smartwatch and may offer built-in glucose monitoring to help diabetic users manage and track blood sugar levels.

ETNews (via Android Authority) reports that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 or the fitness-oriented Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 3 will be available later this year and will offer non-invasive blood glucose monitoring. The company has apparently been working on this technology for some time.

It uses a technique called Raman spectroscopy. The successor to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 could essentially employ a laser to help identify the chemical composition of glucose through the skin. As described in the method developed by Samsung researchers, the laser provides high predictive accuracy. [This research is a collaboration between the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The research results were recently published in the scientific journal Science Advances. It will be peer-reviewed thereafter.

Although their research is not explicitly tied to consumer wearables, ETNews reports that laser-like glucose monitoring sensors could join existing sensors for heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring in smartwatches.

While noninvasive blood glucose monitoring could be a breakthrough for diabetics, it is important to note that such smartwatch capabilities cannot possibly replace all invasive testing. Furthermore, more convenient methods of testing, such as continuous monitoring with small on-body pumps, are gaining popularity.

Indeed, these finger-stick-free systems from companies like Freestyle Libre and Dexcom already offer a way to check blood glucose levels and trends at a glance, with compatible apps for Samsung and Apple smartwatches. We even helped a reader choose the right Apple Watch for monitoring diabetes with the Dexcom G6 system.

If Samsung's wearable can beat Apple's wearable for monitoring blood glucose levels alone, we could see a very capable health tool, and a compelling Apple Watch 7 competitor. Apple's next-generation smartwatch is also expected to launch later this year, but we don't know what wellness upgrades it will receive.

Whether the Apple Watch 7 will compete with the flagship Galaxy Watch or the follow-up Galaxy Watch Active 2 remains to be seen; according to ETNews, Samsung will announce three new wearables at its upcoming Unpacked keynote new wearables to be unveiled. Since the company has so far announced one smartwatch at a time, it will be interesting to see how aggressive Samsung will be this year in order to increase its share of the wearables segment.