- A free update is rolling out to the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5
- It adds blood pressure and insulin resistance trends with monthly reports
- Sleep breathing quality metrics are being introduced too
The best health and fitness wearables are racing to pack as many features as possible into their small form factors, and the three most recent Pixel Watch models — the Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 4, and Pixel Watch 5 — are now getting a major upgrade.
As announced by Google, the free update rolling out now to devices will let users monitor blood pressure trends, sleep breathing metrics, and (something the Apple Watch doesn't have yet) insulin resistance trends.
When it comes to blood pressure and insulin resistance, these aren't instant clinical readings — these smartwatches aren't quite advanced enough for that yet — but longer-term patterns, with assessments popping up once a month.
We knew these features were coming too, because they were announced alongside the Pixel Watch 5 unveiling back in August. What wasn't clear was exactly when the features would land, and now we know.
Lots and lots of data
Google says the insulin resistance trend model has been trained on more than a trillion data points gathered from over 5 million users, while the blood pressure model was built with billions of minutes of raw heart and movement data.
With the sleep breathing quality trends feature, you'll get a report each morning on how your breathing varied over the night. This can help you assess overall sleep quality and figure out the best routine and environment for optimal sleep.
Meanwhile, Pixel Watch 4 and 5 models are also getting Breathing Emergency Detection in select European markets (including France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK). This can spot dangerous drops in oxygen saturation and even place a call to the emergency services.
If you're a Fitbit Air user rather than a Pixel Watch user, you'll get blood pressure and insulin resistance trends on your device "later this year," but you'll need a Google Health Premium subscription to access them, which isn't the case with the Pixel Watches.
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