The Google Pixel Watch 3 Can Call for Help If You Lose Your Pulse

The best thing a company can do for its product—especially for its sales numbers—is to convince the users that it’s essential to living. Google is certainly leaning into that narrative with the Pixel Watch 3. This week, Google’s third-gen smartwatch received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Loss of Pulse Detection feature, which was announced alongside the smartwatch, though it’s been dormant pending clearance. Once the feature rolls out later next month, the Pixel Watch 3 can immediately call for help if your pulse goes out.

The feature has been available in the E.U. since the smartwatch’s debut last fall, but this is the first time it’s available in the U.S. Loss of Pulse Detection works precisely as advertised: your heart rate goes null, and the Pixel Watch 3 immediately enters emergency mode. It starts a countdown and sounds off an alarm. If you don’t respond within seconds, it automatically calls emergency services, provided you set that up beforehand with an Android device.

Google says the watch will be able to differentiate between an immediate cardiac event and simply taking off the watch for the day, suggesting that there will be few false positives. Google touts multi-check, an AI-based algorithm that studies the multipath heart-rate sensor for patterns to detect when it’s genuinely a nuanced situation. The company claims it “rigorously tested” the algorithm with “over hundreds of thousands of hours of data” while also cross-referencing it with “a diverse range of experts,” including cardiologists and high-level emergency medical professionals.

I accidentally triggered the Pixel Watch’s Fall Detection feature before, though it was on the last generation’s hardware. It happened when my foot slid down a hill after a poor landing. False positives happen, but that’s why there’s a few-second countdown and alert so you can call it off when that happens. Regardless, expect Google to market the feature around town, especially since the Apple Watch still can’t do this kind of thing.