A few weeks ago, Google had announced that Fit for Android will be able to measure heart rate and respiratory rate using the smartphone. Now, the company has confirmed that this new feature will start rolling out the Pixel series smartphones from next week.
Google has clarified that these measurements are “not intended for medical purposes.” It’s functionality is quite unique and the company says that it provides a convenient way to “track and improve day-to-day wellness.”
Both of these new features rely on the smartphone’s camera. For monitoring the user’s heart rate, it tracks color change as blood moves through the fingertips. And for monitoring respiratory rate, it tracks the rise and fall of the user’s chest. To increase accuracy in dark environments, flash can be enabled.
The calculation for these two metrics happens in real-time and is done entirely on the user’s device and not uploaded to Google’s cloud. After every measurement, it asks if the user wants to store the result for long-term graphing.
The heart rate monitoring feature is similar to what Samsung offered on several Galaxy smartphones, including the Galaxy S10. However, the South Korean giant removed the feature from Galaxy S10E, Galaxy S20 lineup, and phones launched after that.
As noted, the feature will start rolling to the users of Pixel smartphones from Monday and the company has said that more Android devices will be getting it in the future.
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