Google’s Pixel Watch 3, launched this month, will automatically contact emergency services if the wearer’s heart stops beating.

It detects loss-of-pulse events occurring when the heart suddenly stops beating. This is a health emergency, where every minute matters. It can affect people of any age and be due to a wide range of problems internal or external to the heart, such as primary cardiac arrest, respiratory or circulatory failure, overdose or poisoning.

Unfortunately, many loss of pulse incidents happen when a person is alone, leaving them with effectively no chance of receiving emergency assistance.

The loss of pulse detection feature (blog.google/products/pixel/pixel-watch-3-loss-of-pulse-detection) can automatically place a call to emergency services and share an automated message with critical context, along with the wearer’s location. It will be available on Pixel Watch 3 in September in various countries in Europe, and Google says it will continue working with regulatory bodies to make the feature available in more countries.

Google describes Pixel Watch 3 (store.google.com/product/pixel_watch_3) as the biggest leap forward for its flagship smartwatch, “offering a stunning design combined with better-than-ever performance”. It now comes in two sizes, including an all-new 45mm option, with tools for fitness and recovery, plus on-the-go assistance with its deepest integration with Google and Pixel yet.

Three fitness tools have been added – Daily Readiness, Cardio Load and Target Load.

Daily Readiness is more in tune with the body’s state of recovery. An improved algorithm tracks and analyses the body’s key recovery biometrics, such as resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and recent sleep. The result is a more comprehensive picture of how ready the body is to take on training each day.

Cardio Load helps track training better. It tracks the heart’s exertion and intensity during an activity and throughout the day, and keeps track of trends over time to help the wearer know if they’re over- or under-training, maintaining or improving fitness.

Target Load is a personalised target for training, received each morning. It connects it all together, taking into account recent cardio load and readiness, guiding wearer’s to improve their fitness, while balancing recovery.

All these insights come together in the Fitbit Morning Brief, making it easy to plan each morning, with a daily digest delivered proactively on the wrist on waking. It includes sleep, readiness, target cardio load and tracking against weekly exercise goals. It even shows the weather, and lets the wearer know if any of their metrics – such as HRV, SpO₂ or skin temperature – are out of their personal range.

Tools for runners help plan runs, guiding wearers through them, and reflecting on their progress, whether they are training to run a faster half-marathon or their first 5K. Workout Builder lets wearers build custom runs, set goals for distance, time, pace or heart rate zone, and create repeats for interval runs.

Real-time guidance is powered by continuous sampling, machine-learning based heart-rate tracking. Google says it delivers its most accurate heart rate for running yet.

Motion sensing, combined with machine learning, powers running form-tracking that delivers a comprehensive analysis of the cadence of steps, the length and height of strides, and ground contact time. Wearers can even see how they are improving they pace, form and distance over time, while tracking personal records in the running dashboard in the Fitbit app.

Fitbit Premium brings benefits on top of all this. Google AI powers automatic daily run recommendations, tailored to help wearers hit their target load and personalised to previous runs. Premium members can also enjoy Peloton workout classes from Peloton instructors. Pixel Watch 3 comes with six months of Fitbit Premium included.