Pixel Watch 3 adds a life-saving ‘loss of pulse’ detection feature

With the introduction of the Pixel Watch 3 smartwatches, which now come in two sizes, Google is also introducing a new, potentially life-saving feature: loss of pulse detection. At the Made by Google 2024 event Tuesday, the company announced the watch’s added ability to sense this particular health emergency alongside other new tools and features, like a “readiness” score for training, a cardio load score and personalized daily target load, which combines the former and the latter metrics to show how much intensity you can handle each day.

However, the more compelling addition, including for non-athletes, is the loss of pulse detection feature.

According to Google, a loss of pulse is a health event that could happen to anyone and refers to when the heart is “not beating in a life-sustaining fashion.” This could be caused by a variety of health conditions, including cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, circulatory failure, an overdose, poisoning and more.

The company pointed out that, today, we have the infrastructure in place to get people medical help as quickly as possible, but it’s all predicated on the idea that someone will be there to make a call to emergency medical services on your behalf. But many health emergencies happen when you’re alone and no one is around to help. In fact, more than half the time people experience these events, they’re by themselves, Google said.

Now, if the Pixel Watch 3 detects a loss of pulse emergency through this first-of-a-kind feature, it will make a call to emergency medical services and provide key information like the location of the user, so they can get immediate medical help. (A timer on the watch face will count down in case of a false positive, allowing people to stop the call from being placed.)

Google explained that the watch determines a loss of pulse event not only by checking for the pulse itself, but also by looking at other physiological and motion data, then tying those together via a smart AI-driven algorithm that lives on the watch.

“We hope this can be an airbag moment or smoke detector moment — something that can become standard to help keep us safe when life may bring the unexpected,” Google said.

The loss of pulse feature will initially be available on Pixel Watch 3, starting in select EU countries and the U.K., with more regions to come.