Google is updating its Fit App to measure your heart and respiratory rate using Pixel cameras

Google is adding more features to its Fit App, its take on a health suite that tracks activities like walking, cycling, and running among others will now also be able to measure your heart rate and respiratory rate using Pixel’s rear cameras. This obviously means you are going to need a Pixel phone to have access to this functionality.

The respiratory monitor works by simply aligning your face and upper body with the front camera of a Pixel phone in certain positions. This allows the Fit app to track the movement of your chest and evaluate how quickly or slowly you are breathing.

The heart rate monitor works by tracking the changes of colour in your skin when you press your finger up against the camera. Google also stressed that these systems work with a wide variety of skin tones and ages with the ability to adjust to various lighting conditions as well. As cool as all of this sounds, Google does take a cautious approach and warns people not to use the data for medical diagnosis, that is not what it is meant for.

As explained on its blog, “these measurements aren’t meant for medical diagnosis or to evaluate medical conditions, we hope they can be useful for people using the Google Fit app to track and improve day-to-day wellness.”

This feature will be exclusive to Google’s Pixel family of smartphones at launch but Google does state that it roll the features out to other Android phones in the future. You can save the monitoring information on the phone and the Fit app will monitor your progress by keeping track of trends over time.