Late last year, the second generation Google Nest Hub gained a host of useful features that greatly improved sleep detection capabilities, allowing users to gain better insight into their sleep quality. One such feature is the ability to detect snoring and coughing during sleep, which Google may bring to your Android phone.
9to5Google has discovered a new sleep-sensing feature in a series of code in the latest version of the Google Health Studies app. The built-in feature is said to use your phone’s microphone to listen for potential sleep disturbances such as snoring and coughing. To protect your privacy, this process will be done on your phone.
It’s part of a larger study by the Google Health Sensing team called “Sleep Audio Collection.” The goal is to “provide an advanced set of sensor capabilities and algorithms for Android devices with the goal of providing users with useful insight into their sleep.”
Aside from the Nest Hub (2nd generation), the feature is also available on some of the best Fitbit smartwatches, including the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3.
For now, the beta feature is limited to Google employees. But it’s a safe bet that Google will offer it to more users in the future.
It is not clear when Google will release this new sleep monitoring feature to the public. However, Pixel owners will likely be able to access it first before it becomes widely available. It’s also unknown which apps will include this feature, but Google Fit and Google Clock’s Bedtime hub are the closest things that come to mind.
