Pixel Watch 4 gets Pixel Watch 5’s potentially life-saving feature

Google launched the Pixel Watch 5 just hours ago, and it’s now bringing one of its biggest new health and safety features to the Pixel Watch 4. Breathing Emergency Detection, part of Google’s new Health Guardian suite of features, can detect when a wearer may have stopped breathing and automatically call emergency services if they don’t respond.

According to Google’s blog post, the feature is now available on both the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5 in several European countries, including the UK, Germany, France, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. Unfortunately, the US is not on that list yet. However, Google says it is working to expand availability to more countries.

Google explains that Breathing Emergency Detection is designed for situations where a person experiences a severe drop in blood oxygen and becomes unable to call for help themselves. The company’s examples include severe pneumonia, accidental drug overdose, and choking.

The feature uses an AI-based algorithm to analyze signals from the watch’s heart rate, motion, and altitude sensors. It first checks that the wearer is in a low-motion state and not experiencing rapid changes in altitude. Google also says it checks that the person hasn’t been asleep for more than 30 minutes, helping reduce false alarms from conditions such as sleep apnea.

If the watch detects what it believes is a breathing emergency, it starts a phased alert. The watch first delivers a strong vibration and displays a full-screen warning. If the wearer doesn’t respond and dismiss it, an audible alert plays and a 30-second countdown begins.

If there is still no response, the connected phone or an LTE-enabled Pixel Watch can automatically call emergency services. Once connected, an automated message tells the emergency operator that a breathing emergency was detected, that the wearer isn’t responding, and provides their location. Emergency contacts can also receive an alert if configured.

Google says it developed the feature with internal medicine doctors, cardiologists, anaesthesiologists, emergency medical experts, emergency services, and public health leaders. The company also tested the algorithm in clinical labs using medically supervised simulations and against hundreds of thousands of hours of real-world data.

Google says it will continue working to bring Breathing Emergency Detection to more countries. The feature is opt-in, and its availability also depends on local emergency-service support.