Google introduces ‘Paced Walking’ to help you find best speed

Available on Google Fit, the Paced Walking feature will help you find your preferred walking speed -- a pace that feels natural -- and picking up that pace has health benefits similar to riding a bicycle.

New Delhi: Google has launched a new feature called Paced Walking that will help you meet your best walk goals for utmost health benefits with an audio beat for you to fall in step with.

Available on Google Fit, the Paced Walking feature will help you find your preferred walking speed — a pace that feels natural — and picking up that pace has health benefits similar to riding a bicycle.

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“Plus, if you start walking faster, your natural pace will get faster over time,” said Kapil Parakh, Medical Lead, Google Fit.

Once you start picking up the pace using Paced Walking, you’ll earn more Heart Points in Google Fit — for every minute that you walk at a pace of over 100 steps per minute, you’ll earn one Heart Point.

This will help you get the American Heart Association and the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations of at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week.

According to Rob Harle, a research scientist for Google Fit, the idea is simple.

“Pop in some headphones during a Paced Walking session and we’ll play an audio beat — a gentle background tick — for you to fall in step with,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

“You can use the app to change the beat speed and vary the intensity of your walks. The beat plays on top of other audio, so you can still play music or podcasts while you walk,” he added.

The Paced Walking feature is available on most Android phones globally.