By Julian Chokkattu
Publication Date: 2026-08-12 14:07:00
Google’s first smartwatch debuted just four years ago, and at the time, the company went to great lengths to stress the accuracy of the Pixel Watch’s heart rate sensor. Even if Google was late to the wearable party compared to peers like Apple and Samsung, that focus on heart rate seems to be paying off with new features that are yet to be seen on competing products.
On Wednesday, Google introduced the latest generation of its smartwatch, the Pixel Watch 5 (alongside the Pixel 11 smartphone family). The hot new health feature? Breathing Emergency Detection. Similar to the first-of-its-kind Loss of Pulse Detection feature introduced on the Pixel Watch 3, this new capability can be triggered by a variety of factors, like drug toxicity, accidents, severe pneumonia, and choking.
“Using a combination of data from the advanced sensors, including a PPG, accelerometer, and barometer, we’ve designed an AI-based algorithm running on device to detect a persistent drop in oxygen saturation and…
