Pixel 8 Pro's thermometer 'body temperature reading' only available in the US, but there's a way to enable it anywhere

The latest Pixel Featured Drop brought a long-awaited and useful feature: body temperature readings through the Pixel 8 Pro’s thermometer. The development surely excited many owners of the device worldwide, but there is an unsurprising catch to it. The feature is only available in the United States, much like a host of other AI tricks up its sleeves. Also, it is not known if Google has plans to expand it to more regions around the world.

As Google recently explained in a post, the reason why the Pixel 8 Pro’s thermometer was not capable of measuring body temperature was the lack of necessary certifications. This was finally resolved by receiving FDA certification in December 2023, but only for the United States market. Enabling the feature in more regions means that Google will have to go through the certification process for each local entity, and it is not known if that is in the company’s plans.

Therefore, at least for now, Pixel 8 Pro owners in the United States are now getting the update for the Thermometer app that adds the option to measure body temperature.

That said, there is a method that could help you enable the feature anywhere in the world, but there are a few things you should know before trying it. According to Android expert Mishaal Rahman, the method consists of ‘tricking’ the device into believing that you are connected to a network in the US and installing an app (Carrier Vanity) that, although safe, could cause operating conflicts with some apps:

Also, in our personal tests, the method did not help us get the feature outside of the US, so it may not work for you either. That said, if you want to try the method (also by Mishaal Rahman), you must follow these steps:

1. Download and set up Shizuku from Google Play.
2. Download, install and open the Carrier Vanity Name app.
3. Open Carrier Vanity app, and in the “ISO Country Code” field (the second field), type “us”. (You can ignore the first field.)
4. Click “set”.
5. Stop the Thermometer app and clear its data, then open it. The body temperature feature should be available.
6. You can now re-open the CVN app and hit “Reset” to reset the ISO country code.

Shizuku is an app that helps you unlock new levels of functionality on your device without needing to root it. If you need help setting up the Shizuku app, there’s a step-by-step tutorial:

For root users:

Just install, open the app and grant it root access. The process will be completed automatically without further complications.

For non-root users:

1. Go to your phone Settings menu.
2. Tap on ‘About phone’.
3. Tap 7 times in a row on ‘Build number’ to unlock ‘Developer options’ menu.
4. Go back to ‘Settings’ menu and tap on ‘System’, then tap on ‘Developer options’.
5. Open Shizuku app and tap on ‘pairing’.
6. Return to the ‘Developer options’ menu, enable ‘Wireless debugging’.
7. From the ‘Wireless debugging’ menu, tap on ‘Pair devices with pairing code’.
8. You will receive a pop-up with a code and a ‘Pairing service found’ notification.
9. Tap on ‘Enter pairing code’ from the notification and type the code that appeared in the pop-up, then tap on ‘Send’.
10. The pairing will have been successful at this point. Go to Shizuku app and tap on ‘Start’.
11. After finishing the process, you will see some cards among which are ‘Shizuku is running’ (indicating that the pairing was successful).
12. Another card says ‘Authorized applications’, tap on it, search for Smartspacer app and enable it.

We hope that the tutorial helps you enable the Pixel 8 Pro’s body temperature feature, although the ideal would be for Google to deploy the feature officially in all the markets where it has a presence.

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