How your Pixel Watch steps in if you stop breathing

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Breathing emergencies can happen to anyone — and they're especially dangerous when a person becomes unresponsive and can't call for help. Breathing emergency detection on Pixel Watch can detect these events and automatically call emergency services, potentially saving lives.

Pramod Rudrapatna

Senior Product Manager, Google Health

Tajinder Gadh

Principal Software Engineer, Android

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When a breathing-related emergency — like severe pneumonia, accidental drug overdose, or choking — causes a critical drop in oxygen saturation, a person can rapidly become unresponsive and unable to call for help.

These types of emergencies can be reversible — but only if someone knows the emergency is happening, intervenes, and calls for help. But many of these emergencies happen when there’s no one around.

A first of its kind, opt-in feature on Pixel Watch, breathing emergency detection

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can offer a lifeline by recognizing when a person’s blood oxygen level drops dangerously low. If they become unresponsive, it automatically calls emergency services

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and their emergency contacts so they can receive potentially life-saving care.

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The science and design behind the feature

Breathing emergency detection uses an advanced, AI-based algorithm to analyze signals from your watch’s heart rate, motion, and altitude sensors. To try and minimize accidental check-ins, it verifies that you’re in a low-motion state without rapid altitude changes.

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And to reduce false notifications from conditions like sleep apnea, it also confirms that you haven’t been asleep for more than 30 minutes.

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The mechanics of the notification

If the algorithm thinks you’ve stopped breathing, it initiates a phased escalation to get help while giving you the chance to cancel. First, it triggers a strong haptic vibration and a full-screen visual notification. If you don’t dismiss the notification, an audible alert will sound and a 30-second countdown begins. If the countdown ends without a response, the feature automatically prompts your connected phone or LTE-enabled watch to call emergency services. Once the call is connected, an automated voice message informs the emergency operator that a breathing emergency was detected. It explains that you aren’t responding and shares your precise location. If you’ve set up emergency contacts, the feature sends a message notifying them that you may need help.

The future of personal safety

Developing this responsibly required rigor. Because breathing emergencies are time-sensitive, they can’t easily be tested in everyday settings. So we collaborated with internal medicine doctors, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, and emergency medical experts to understand how oxygen loss presents in the body. We then used those critical details to shape the technology.

To ensure the technology works when it matters most, we tested the algorithm in clinical labs, where volunteers safely simulated emergency conditions under medical supervision. We also tested it against hundreds of thousands of hours of real world data to eliminate false alarms from sleep apnea or quiet rest. Then we worked closely with emergency medical services and public health leaders to ensure our alerts worked within existing emergency response systems.

Breathing emergency detection reinforces our commitment to building technology that's helpful when it matters most. It’s the latest addition to our suite of advanced safety features, which also includes Loss of Pulse Detection.

Through medical collaboration and extensive real world testing, breathing emergency detection can bridge the gap between everyday technology and life saving intervention. It is a fundamental step forward in making personal safety proactive and accessible.

It’s available now on Pixel Watch 4 and 5 in several European countries,

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including Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. We’ll continue working to make the feature available in more countries soon.

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Pixel Watch 5 is available for preorder now and will be on shelves August 20, starting at $399 (41mm) and $429 (45mm).

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