Google is going to roll out an extremely useful for new Pixel owners soon. The company took to The Keyword to announce that it intends to allow users to measure their heart and respiratory rate through the Google Fit app.
That means you won’t need to purchase a fitness tracker or other device to measure these important health metrics. Instead, you’ll be able to use the phone you already have in your pocket.
How Does it Work?
Starting with the respiratory tracking, all you need to do is place your head and upper torso in view of the phone’s front-facing camera and breathe normally. From there, the app will monitor your breathing patterns and provide your respiratory rate.
For the heart rate, the process is quite simple. You simply place your finger over the phone’s rear camera lens and wait for a reading. Interestingly, the Google Fit app doesn’t require the flash to be on to get a reading.
Once you have the readings, you can choose to save them in the Google Fit app to track trends over time.
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Of course, Google has the standard disclaimer for these sorts of health readings regarding them not replacing an actual doctor:
While these measurements aren’t meant for medical diagnosis or to evaluate medical conditions, we hope they can be useful for people using the Google Fit app to track and improve day-to-day wellness.
However, Google also did say that it tested out the feature and readings. The company “completed initial clinical studies to validate them,” so you should be able to rely on the results being fairly accurate, even if they can’t replace a real physical with your doctor. If you’re looking to keep tabs on some of your health metrics, this feature is definitely useful. Just make sure you visit your doctor regularly.
Google Fit Health Measuring Availability
Google announced that the feature is coming to its Google Fit app next month, so you’ll need to wait a little bit before you can try it out. The company didn’t get any more specific regarding a particular day for the feature to launch, so we’ll just have to be patient.
Unfortunately, the company also revealed that only Pixel phones could use the new heart and respiratory rate measuring features.
However, Google also announced plans to expand the feature to other Android phones at a later date. Again, Google didn’t specify when that would be, but it’s good to know that it has the wider Android community on its radar for this cool new feature.