Google Fit update to turn Pixel phones into more advanced health tools

Forget your smartwatch: Google is adding a new feature to the Fit app that will allow Pixel phones to measure your heart rate and respiratory health. Google said that these new features take advantage of sensors that are already built into Pixel phones, including the microphone, camera, and accelerometer.

To measure your heart rate, place your finger on the rear-facing camera lens. Meanwhile, to measure your respiratory rate, place your head and upper torso in view of your phone’s front-facing camera and breath as you normally would. Google said these type of measurements are commonly used to assess overall health and wellness.

“Thanks to increasingly powerful sensors and advances in computer vision, these features let you use your smartphone’s camera to track tiny physical signals at the pixel level — like chest movements to measure your respiratory rate and subtle changes in the color of your fingers for your heart rate,” Google said in a blog post.

Google said it completed initial clinical studies to validate the new features coming to Google Fit. Internal studies on Pixel phones apparently showed the respiratory rate feature was accurate within one breath per minute, the company said (via The Verge). Meanwhile, the heart rate feature was accurate within 2 percent.

The search giant is warning, however, that these new features aren’t meant to diagnose medical conditions. They’re being introduced in an effort to encourage users to track and improve their day-to-dat wellness, and to make more advanced health tools more accessible. Measurements that are made can be saved in the Google Fit app, which will monitor trends over time.

Google isn’t the first company to introduce heart rate monitoring support using a device’s camera. Last year, Xiaomi introduced a similar feature to its Mi Health app. While these features aren’t quite as helpful as a wearable device, which can continuously monitor your health, taking more regular measurements is better than no measurements at all.

The new features are coming to the Google Fit app on Pixel phones starting next month, with wider support for more Android devices soon.

Google Fit: Health and Activity Tracking (Free, Google Play) →

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