Alphabet Inc. announced on Wednesday a series of new health features for its wearable devices, with the most notable being a tool designed for long-term tracking of insulin resistance. This marks a significant step forward for consumer tech companies in exploring more comprehensive blood glucose monitoring.

The new feature does not continuously monitor or directly display blood glucose levels—achieving continuous glucose monitoring would be a major breakthrough. Instead, Alphabet uses a combination of artificial intelligence and data from multiple sensors, including accelerometers, barometers, heart rate monitors, and skin temperature sensors, to assess the body's metabolic burden when processing food. This allows for an indirect evaluation of changes in insulin resistance levels.

When the system detects a notable fluctuation in the user's insulin resistance, the Google Health app will send an alert, prompting the user to consider lifestyle adjustments or consult a healthcare provider. If left unaddressed over time, insulin resistance can progress to prediabetes or type 2 diabetes.

In addition to insulin resistance tracking, Alphabet also introduced features for monitoring blood pressure trends and analyzing nighttime breathing patterns. The company has integrated these new tools with its existing health capabilities into a suite called "Health Guardian," designed to help users detect subtle physiological changes earlier and use that information to improve their daily habits.

These features will launch later and were announced alongside the new Pixel smartphone in New York. Alphabet confirmed that the new capabilities will first be available on the Pixel Watch 5 and Fitbit Air, with a gradual rollout to other devices planned afterward.