GoKawiilA new feature on the Pixel Watch 5 isn’t designed to give users additional routine health data. Instead, it’s intended to help them when they’re unable to help themselves.
Google’s newly announced breathing emergency detection feature uses AI to analyze signals from the watch’s heart rate, motion and altitude sensors to detect signs of a breathing emergency. If it detects one, the wearer has 30 seconds to cancel the alert before the watch automatically calls emergency services and alerts their emergency contacts.
Google says the feature could provide life-saving assistance during incidents such as severe pneumonia, an accidental drug overdose, or choking. In addition to the Pixel Watch 5, the feature will also be available on the Pixel Watch 4 when the feature rolls out.
But Americans will have to wait. The feature has not yet been cleared or evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is currently only available in some European countries. A US release date has not yet been announced.
How the breathing emergency detection works
The feature combines data from sensors in the watch and an AI-based algorithm.
“The optical sensor uses green, red and infrared light to estimate blood oxygen levels and identify severe, persistent drops,” Pramod Rudrapatna, Google senior product manager for health, told CNET in an email. “The accelerometer looks for prolonged low movement, while the barometer helps account for environmental factors such as high altitude, where oxygen saturation can naturally be lower. These signals are analyzed together by on-device machine learning models to determine whether they are consistent with a potential breathing emergency while minimizing false alerts.”
To reduce false positives, Google says the feature will also ensure the wearer hasn’t been asleep for more than 30 minutes during the detected incident so that conditions such as sleep apnea won’t interfere with the readings.
“That combination is a smart way to cut down false alarms,” says Dr. Lindsey Rosman, assistant professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She adds that photoplethysmography (or PPG, the light sensors often found in wearables) has known limitations that can affect readings, but “requiring stillness alongside the oxygen drop likely helps reduce these issues [and] improves reliability.”
Rosman, who also studies the psychological impacts of cardiac wearables, warns that alerting people to a life-threatening event they can’t independently verify is a double-edged sword.
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