As announced earlier last month, Google is now rolling out an update for the Google Fit app that turns your Pixel into a heart and respiratory-rate measuring device. The company recently announced a Pixel feature drop, introducing several new features for its Google Fit app. These will initially only be available for select Pixel phones.
Coming to the support for heart and respiratory rate monitoring, both of these features will work using just the cameras at the front and back of your smartphone. You do not require any other specialized hardware for this to work.
For heart rate monitoring, all you need to do is place your finger on the back camera. You need to open the Google Fit app and tap the heart-rate card to initiate the process. You will have to grant some permissions, after which you can place your finger over the primary camera sensor at the back. The tool will detect your pulse and give you an approximate result.
Coming to the respiratory rate, you can track it by positioning yourself in front of the selfie camera – keeping your face and torso in the frame. The camera will then track your chest movements to track your breathing.
You can check out Google’s official video demoing the features right below:
Now, you can tell by the way it works that this is not very reliable, especially when it comes to people with serious ailments. That is why Google pointed out that these features are not meant for medical purposes.
These features will be rolling out to Pixel phones via the Google Fit app later this week. However, in the future, Google will roll out the heart and respiratory rate measurement features to other Android devices in the market.
