Rumors have surfaced that Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S6 will feature a number of interchangeable phone covers that will provide different functionality to users, including a case with built-in health sensors, PhoneArena reports.
The original report comes from Polish blog Android.com.pl, which writes that the S6 will come with various phone covers or cases that will connect to the phone and offer different enhancements. One would improve the phone's camera, one would add an e-ink screen, and one, apparently, would add some kind of glucose meter that would upload data directly into Samsung's S Health app.
An additional case would be fitness-oriented and would connect the phone to various stationary fitness equipment like exercise bikes and steppers.
A built-in glucometer could finally see justification for why Samsung went through the FDA clearance process for its S Health app, which the company secured more than a year ago. At the time, we reported that S Health was connecting to glucometers in the UK, but hadn't brought that functionality to the US.
But the report should be taken with a grain of salt, given Samsung's uneven track record. Samsung Ventures made a notable investment in glucose meter connectivity company Glooko around the same time as the FDA clearance, which made it seem like an S Health-Glooko integration was coming up, but the fruits of that partnership have yet to emerge.
The S Health app apparently tracked blood glucose at some point, but an April report from mobile tech blog PocketLint said they actually removed it in the update to S Health 3.0, which came out when the S5 was launched.
The announcement of the S4 also included a slew of fitness tracking accessories, including a scale, heart-rate sensing chest strap, and wristworn activity tracker, that were never actually released in the United States.
Since then Samsung has stepped up its health game in a number of ways, most notably by partnering with a group of health companies to develop applications on its SAMIIO open architecture. That included a partnership with WellDoc to integrate BlueStar with Samsung's digital health efforts.
