Google unveils Pixel Watch 3 with new health and fitness features

Google made numerous announcements during its Made by Google event at its Bay View headquarters on Tuesday, including the release of its latest smartwatch, Pixel Watch 3, with machine learning-enabled fitness capabilities and health-metrics tracking.

The Pixel Watch 3 has some fitness aspects like previous versions, such as tracking a wearer’s sleep, stress levels and vitals such as oxygen, skin temperature and heart rhythm. 

The company said these aspects of health are interconnected. One’s activity and sleep impact recovery, and recovery impacts how much activity a user can take on. 

The Pixel Watch 3 collects and interweaves all of that data to deliver a comprehensive profile to individuals, focused first on runners.

The new health features are meant to help runners curate their workouts and reflect on their process and improvement. 

The wearable allows users to plan their routine, and lets them build their own workout by adding segments, setting targets for the segments and creating intervals. 

While the user is running, the device can be used as a coach by giving the wearer guidance through audio and haptic cues.

The watch also allows for connectedness between equipment, including gym equipment like Peloton and NordicTrack. 

Users can follow Google Maps offline and control media playback on the workout screen, without the need to hunt for options. 

The tech giant also says that, with new upgrades to its sensing technology, the Pixel Watch 3 will have the most accurate heart-rate sensing technology on the market for runners. 

HR monitoring employs machine learning to track a user’s heart rate and capture the running form of the wearer. The device can also analyze the wearer’s form and dynamics, such as cadence of steps, length and height of stride and ground contact time. 

After a workout, a user can view performance metrics to gain insight into how to improve their fitness. 

The watch also analyzes and correlates workout intensity with the need for recovery.

To determine if a user needs recovery time, the watch examines three biometrics: heart rate variability, resting heart rate and sleep. The device then provides a composite score that tells an individual how ready they are to take on a training load. 

It also includes a new metric called Cardio Mode for individuals actively training and seeking guidance. This mode tracks one’s heart exertion during activity, and while going about daily life, to provide a complete overview of the wearer’s training status. 

The Pixel Watch 3 also includes a metric called Target Mode, where users receive personalized insights about whether their body is ready to perform more training or needs time to rest and recover.

Fitbit Morning Brief is another feature added to the watch that brings health information together to deliver a wearer’s readiness score at the start of the day: how well they slept, tracking data against weekly exercise goals, a target load and the day’s weather.

Additionally, the watch includes a loss of pulse detection feature, which checks for an individual’s pulse. If a pulse is not detected, the watch will call emergency services and send an automated message to alert the operator.  

It also goes into Auto Bedtime Mode, automatically detecting when the wearer falls asleep and turning off notifications. When a user wakes up, the watch detects the fact and automatically exits Bedtime Mode. 

The Pixel Watch 3 will be available in two sizes: 41 mm and 45 mm. Its displays are twice as bright as previous watches, at 2,000 nits, and can be reduced to one nit in darkroom environments.

The new device will have a 35% bigger battery in the 45 mm, which allows for longer battery life, and an improved battery-saver mode that lasts up to 36 hours. The watch also charges 20% faster than previous versions. 

Pixel Watch 3 with a 41 mm screen will retail for $349 with WiFi capabilities, and $449 for the LTE version. The 45 mm Pixel 3 will sell for $399 with WiFi and $449 for LTE. 

Additional offerings

Google also announced that its generative AI intelligence chatbot, Gemini Live, will be implemented in its new phones, the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL. Live allows users to have free-flowing conversations with the AI chatbot. 

Still, the tech giant says there are limits to how one should depend on Live’s conversational AI answers.

“We are very clear and upfront that Gemini should not be relied on for medical, legal, financial or other professional advice. Any content regarding those topics is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for advice from a qualified professional. Gemini Live follows the same safeguards against providing detailed medical guidance as the main Gemini App experience,” a Google representative told MobiHealthNews.

Additionally, the company announced an updated camera system with new features for its Pixel phones, including an Add Me option, which combines Google’s augmented reality platform with 15 on-device AI models.

Add Me, which is launching in preview this year, allows a user to take a photo and then trade it with another person.

The device’s AR can guide a picture-taker in positioning a scene. Once the second shot is taken, the technology merges the two photos to create a composite image with everyone in it in one shot. 

An AI-enabled image generator dubbed Pixel Studio was also announced. It allows users to create and refine visuals by typing a description of what they want to see. 

The Pixel 9 will retail starting at $799, the Pixel 9 Pro will begin at $999, and the Pixel 9 Pro XL will start at $1,099.

The company also announced the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, its premium design offering and the thinnest foldable on the market. It retails at $1,799. 

The tech giant announced the release of the Pixel Buds Pro 2, its first earbuds built with Gemini integration. The integration makes the offering the first device to bring Gemini outside the phone. The Buds Pro 2 will retail for $229. 

Consumers can preorder all the coming products starting on August 13. 

The HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum is scheduled to take place September 5-6 in Boston. Learn more and register.