Pixel Watch 5 Brings AI Health Tracking With Insulin Resistance and Emergency Breathing Detection

Pixel Watch 5 Will Call Emergency Services if It Detects a Breathing Emergency - CNET

Corin Cesaric-Epple is an Editor at CNET covering home and kitchen tech and meal kits, and reporting regularly on artificial intelligence.... Read full bio A 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. "It can save lives, but it may also drive real health anxiety and hypervigilance, even when the alert is a false positive," she said. If users don't want to use this feature, they can turn it off in their settings. Breathing emergency detection is one of four new features that come under the Pixel's Health Guardian umbrella. The other three monitor trends for insulin resistance, blood pressure, and sleep breathing quality. In 2025, Google rolled out a feature called loss of pulse detection on the Pixel 3 Watch in the US. That feature tracks the wearer's pulse, while breathing emergency detection focuses on blood oxygen levels and patterns. However, if they work as promised, both features could work together to detect the same type of health emergency, such as an accidental overdose. Loss of pulse detection has been cleared by the FDA and is available now.

Google's newest Pixel Watch feature can monitor your blood pressure and insulin resistance - Engadget

Google's Health Guardian feature promises to monitor what other wearables can't. At the launch of the Pixel Watch 5, Google announced Health Guardian, a new suite of tools to keep an eye on your health. It's not just watching the signals that every other wearable can, but something potentially much more impactful. Google says its new platform will be able to see trends on your blood pressure, breathing and, most interestingly of all, insulin resistance. If it has been able to achieve the latter, then the consequences could be staggering. Cuffless blood pressure monitoring is increasingly common in high-end wearables, but with a lot of caveats around accuracy. Samsung's Galaxy Watch feature, for instance, asks that users regularly calibrate their watch against a traditional blood pressure cuff. The accuracy issues did not stop the FDA from opening up the rules to allow the features in consumer devices, however. Google's offering is different, aggregating all of the information in your pulse and motion patterns, crunching it in a proprietary algorithm, then giving you a single data point on the first day of each month. Once you've seen the trend, you can get advice from an AI, which can analyze the data and offer up tailored recommendations on how to improve. Google is also looking to tackle what it's calling "breathing-related emergencies" that cause a "critical drop in oxygen saturation." Much like Loss of Pulse Detection on recent Pixel Watches, compatible devices will have an opt-in feature that, if the user's blood oxygen falls dangerously low, will call emergency services and contacts. It uses an AI-based algorithm to monitor your heart rate, motion and altitude data, with plenty of guard rails to stop it calling 911 if, for instance, you've dozed off for a nap and have sleep apnea. If the watch thinks there is an issue, it'll first try to rouse you with a vibration trigger and full screen notification. Then you'll hear an audible signal and hear a 30-second countdown that, if you don't turn off in time, will trigger a call to the emergency services. Insulin resistance Most interestingly, however, is Google's pledge that can now keep track of your insulin resistance from your wrist. The company claims Health Guardian "passively tracks your body's energy efficiency and serves as an early warning system for your metabolic health." It'll do this by tracking your heart rhythm, sleep quality and by monitoring your activity, then crunching it through an AI model. Like the blood pressure trend, users will get a monthly score alongside nudges and tips to help get the numbers back on track. For the last decade, if not longer, noninvasive blood sugar monitoring has been the holy grail for many wearables companies. After all, many wearables offer a similar cluster of health sensors, so any one that could operate as a diabetes monitor would stand out against its competition. Not to mention the public health benefits of being able to keep an eye on someone's blood sugar without breaking their skin. In 2017, reports claimed Apple had been working on this technology at the behest of Steve Jobs himself before his death in 2011. In 2023, rumors were that the team had made headway, but clearly not enough for it to be added to a product. Google has telegraphed its work in this area, and last year posted details about the study it had designed to test its theories. The WEAR-ME study, in partnership with Quest Diagnostics, asked participants to wear either a Fitbit or a Pixel Watch. Data from those wearables, including their resting heart rate, step count and sleep patterns, was cross-checked with data from Quest's in-person blood tests. This information was then fed into a neural network and from it, a link between wearable data and the blood tests was found. In March 2026, Google's team published a paper in Nature showing the possibility of using wearables to identify insulin resistance early. Of course, for all of these claims, the company is ready with a brace of disclaimers, saying the features are not a substitute for a diagnostic tool and do not provide clinical advice. But it's very likely people will listen to the advice given, and hopefully make healthy lifestyle changes as a result. Blood Pressure and Insulin Trends will be available on the Pixel Watch 3, 4 and 5, as well as the Fitbit Air this fall. Breathing detection, meanwhile, will work on the Pixel Watch 4 and 5, and is available as of now in several European countries. It hasn't yet been cleared or evaluated by the FDA, so don't expect the feature to make its way over the pond for a little while as yet.

Pixel Watch adds blood pressure and insulin resistance tracking

Google unveiled Health Guardian with the Pixel Watch 5, adding features that the company said can track blood pressure trends, insulin resistance and breathing-related emergencies. Blood Pressure and Insulin Trends will be available this fall on the Pixel Watch 3, 4 and 5, as well as the Fitbit Air, while breathing detection will work on the Pixel Watch 4 and 5. Google said its blood pressure tool analyzes pulse and motion patterns through a proprietary algorithm and provides users with one monthly data point on the first day of each month. The feature also offers AI-generated recommendations based on the trend. The company said its breathing emergency feature is designed to detect what it called "breathing-related emergencies" that cause a "critical drop in oxygen saturation." If blood oxygen falls to a dangerous level, the opt-in system can contact emergency services and designated contacts. Video: Google The watch will first try to alert the user with vibration and a full-screen notification. It then issues an audible warning and a 30-second countdown before placing a call if the alert is not dismissed. Google said the breathing feature uses an AI-based algorithm that monitors heart rate, motion and altitude data. The company said it includes safeguards intended to avoid false alarms, including cases such as a user falling asleep with sleep apnea. Google also said Health Guardian can estimate insulin resistance from the wrist by tracking heart rhythm, sleep quality and activity levels through an AI model. Users receive a monthly score and tips aimed at improving the result. The company said the features are not a substitute for diagnostic tools and do not provide clinical advice. Google has been testing this area through the WEAR-ME study with Quest Diagnostics. In that study, participants wore a Fitbit or Pixel Watch, and wearable data including resting heart rate, step count and sleep patterns was compared with Quest's in-person blood test results. Google's team published a paper in Nature in March 2026 that showed the possibility of using wearable data to identify insulin resistance early. Breathing detection is already available in several European countries. The feature has not been cleared or evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Google Pixel Watch 5: How Health Guardian, Gemini AI Are Redefining Smartwatch Health Tracking

The other helps make sense of information and act on it. Together, the two point to a shift already underway in wearable technology, moving from a device that records what happened to one that flags what may be changing. Health Guardian is Google's umbrella term for tools built to surface patterns a wearer would otherwise miss between checkups. The watch already handled irregular heart rhythm and loss of pulse alerts. adds three monthly trend reports covering blood pressure, insulin resistance, and sleep breathing quality. These are trend insights, not measurements or diagnoses. The reports run on Health Foundation Models trained on sensor data from opted-in users and checked against clinical-grade equipment. Google says the blood pressure trend analysis was tested against 24-hour ambulatory monitors, and the first personalized summary arrives after a full month of wear. Sleep tracking gets sharper too. A new sleep breathing quality metric reads blood oxygen levels minute by minute, and Google claims sleep stage detection is now 15 percent more accurate than the previous generation. The company positions all three reports as general wellness signals, useful for noticing a slow drift in metabolic or cardiovascular patterns rather than replacing a doctor's evaluation.

Google Brings AI-Powered Insulin Resistance Tracking to Wearables

Google is working on a new wearable feature that can track signs of insulin resistance without needing a glucose sensor. Google is working on a new health feature that could help wearables track insulin resistance without a glucose sensor. On Wednesday, the company announced a series of new health features for wearable devices, including blood sugar monitoring. The device won't continuously monitor or directly display blood sugar readings, instead, it will combine AI with sensor data, including accelerometer, barometer, heart rate, and skin temperature sensors, to assess how much strain the body is under when metabolizing food. By analyzing these data, the device will detect changes in insulin resistance. If the device detects significant fluctuations in a user's insulin resistance, the Google Health app will send an alert to the person for a doctor consultation. In an interview, Francis Ho, Google's lead Pixel Watch product manager, mentioned, "Generally, these shifts in your insulin resistance levels are very subtle. Most adults don't really think to monitor this, but if left untreated, it can evolve into these more serious conditions." As per reports, the feature will roll out and will be unveiled in New York alongside Google's new Pixel smartphone, and it will be the first feature in .