Sleep Sensing is Free for Another year
In March last year, Google stated that Sleep Sensing on Nest Hub would be a paid feature. This feature is powered by Soli technology that debuted on the Pixel 4. Perhaps, the company hasn’t decided yet how it will charge its users of Nest Hub.
The Google Store product page of Nest Hub was updated to say that the feature is free until next year. It’s planning to integrate it into Fitbit Premium in 2024. However, Google did not specify what it will include.
It might combine sleep data from Next Hub with Fitbit Smartwatch and Pixel Watch. Last month, Google Fit was integrated with Health Connect to show wrist-based heart rate data along with Nest Hub sleep stats.
The Sleep Sensing feature is accurate and similar to wrist-derived stats. You can get sleep stages and know whether you are coughing or snoring throughout the night.
The device also tracks sounds and light changes that might cause sleep disruption. You also get a readout of your room temperature but it is limited to Sleep Sensing. Users can’t access it on demand.
Nest Hub Sleep Sensing: How It Works?
The second-gen Nest Hub includes Sleep Sensing. Having good quality sleep is a top concern among adults. In its research, Google found that people’s bedrooms today have gadgets. Some of them can monitor sleep. But not all people want to wear jewelry when sleeping.
The sleep sensors of this Nest Hub analyze your sleep according to your movement and breathing. They can also identify disruptions, like light fluctuations, coughing, temperature changes, etc. They can all impact your sleep quality.
Soli technology is ideal for this purpose because it tracks movement at macro and micro levels. But Soli isn’t a camera. It can’t see or identify you.
But the Nest Hub generates movement graphs together with audio data. They are all processed locally.
High-level sleep events will be sent to Google but a night’s results can be deleted in the morning.
Google asked thousands of people to submit more than 100,000 nights to produce sensing algorithms. The results were verified against studies and clinical-grade sleep trackers.
The performance of this device surpassed existing offerings.
The experience starts with calibration. It will tell you to point it at your body. You can place the drive one to two feet away from you. The low-energy radar creates a tracking bubble to ignore everything outside of it.
When you enable this feature, you can ask Google in the morning how did you sleep. Or you can just tap the Sleep Summary on the screen.
You can set it to provide you with weekly summaries to see breaths per minute. You can also see the number of minutes you snored.
It also shows your cough count. The data will sync with Google Fit and you can see the details on your Android or iOS device.
Even though Google worked with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine to guide users, it must not be used to diagnose, cure or prevent any disease.
