{"id":574915,"date":"2026-05-09T15:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/574915\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:24:15","slug":"health-sensors-on-google-wearables-are-breaking-down-at-an-awkward-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/574915\/","title":{"rendered":"Health sensors on Google wearables are breaking down at an awkward moment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"e_Jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  title=\"google pixel watch 4 app grid launcher\"  alt=\"google pixel watch 4 app grid launcher\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/google-pixel-watch-4-app-grid-launcher.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>TL;DR<\/p>\n<p>Some Pixel Watch owners say SpO2 and skin temperature tracking stopped working after a recent Fitbit update.<br \/>\nGoogle and Fitbit have acknowledged the permission reset issue and say work is underway to restore access.<br \/>\nReports include both Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Watch 4 users, but it\u2019s unclear how widely the bug is affecting owners.<\/p>\n<p>Google launched the Fitbit Air yesterday, giving its wearable lineup a fresh screenless tracker and a new entry point into its revamped health platform. But the company is also getting some less welcome feedback from another corner of its wearable ecosystem, as some Pixel Watch owners say a recent update has broken SpO2 and skin temperature tracking on their current devices.<\/p>\n<p>The issue was raised in a Reddit thread on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/PixelWatch\/comments\/1t664rh\/comment\/okjmqvo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">r\/PixelWatch<\/a>, where a Pixel Watch 3 owner said a recent Fitbit update had reset permissions for skin temperature and SpO2 tracking. The user said they couldn\u2019t simply turn the permissions back on, as the permissions page showed that no app was requesting them. A few other commenters reported similar problems in the thread.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/andauth.co\/AAGooglePreferredSource\" class=\"e_em\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><img class=\"e_Jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768240152_738_google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png\"\/><img class=\"e_Jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768240152_238_google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Google\u2019s PixelCommunity account <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/PixelWatch\/comments\/1t664rh\/comment\/okjmqvo\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">responded in the thread<\/a>, acknowledging \u201cWe regret the disruption to your health tracking experience caused by these permission resets.\u201d It added that \u201cwork is underway to restore access to SpO2 and skin temperature tracking features.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A separate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/fitbit\/comments\/1t6gelx\/blood_oxygen_and_skin_temp_variation_stopped\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">r\/fitbit<\/a> thread suggests the issue isn\u2019t limited to the Pixel Watch 3. In that post, a Pixel Watch 4 owner said the same sensors had stopped appearing in the Pixel Watch and Fitbit apps for more than a week. FitbitHelpCommunity <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/fitbit\/comments\/1t6gelx\/comment\/oknpjwj\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">later replied<\/a> with almost the same message, again pointing to the same firmware update and saying work is underway to restore access.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t know how widespread this issue is, and the user in the Fitbit thread appears to have rectified it by restarting their device. However, the official replies make clear that Google and Fitbit are aware of a real permissions-related issue tied to the recent update, which isn\u2019t ideal timing given that Google is trying to convince more people to buy into its health-tracking ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rita El Khoury \/ Android Authority TL;DR Some Pixel Watch owners say SpO2 and skin temperature tracking stopped&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9916,59,19736,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-574915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-fitbit","tag-gb","tag-google-pixel-watch","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}