Earlier this year, the Google Health app launched as a reworked version of the Fitbit app, serving as a centralised hub for tools and features concerning health and wellbeing. One of the highlights is Health Guardian, which passively monitors certain metrics to encourage proactive action. Initially announced in August with the Pixel Watch 5, it is now rolling out to users.
Worth noting that Health Guardian is not just one tool. Instead, it encompasses a selection of features that monitor blood pressure, insulin resistance, and sleep breathing quality. These features identify patterns and deliver reports to the user on a monthly basis. As detailed in Google’s announcement, these capabilities will be available for free for the Pixel Watch 3, 4, and 5. The search giant also noted that the first trend reports should arrive in early October.
According to the company, these AI-driven tools are backed by clinical research and are aimed at helping users track subtle physiological shifts. Since these functions rely on the wearable’s sensors rather than specialised equipment, they provide estimates that are meant to guide the user. They are not intended to be replacements for actual medical advice.
Once enabled, blood pressure and insulin resistance insights will be delivered on the first of each month, provided that there is enough data to work with. In the case of the former, the user must have at least five consecutive days of data in a week. Meanwhile, insulin resistance requires a minimum of seven days in a month.
Beyond that, Google noted that the availability of certain features is affected by region and device. For instance, Fitbit Air users will only have access to insulin resistance and blood pressure trends via a paid subscription later this year. Meanwhile, Pixel Watch 4 and 5 users in Europe can benefit from a breathing emergency detection feature that can automatically trigger a call to emergency services if a user experiences severe drops in blood oxygen. For now, it’s unclear whether this tool will arrive in other countries.
(Source: Google [blog])
