Why You Should Turn on Fall Protection on Your Apple Watch Even When You’re Young
Apple Watch is a great tool for staying healthy. It tracks your steps, keeps track of your burned calories and helps you monitor your heart rate. While many of its great features work out of the box, one setting is often disabled by default, and this is one that could very well save someone’s life.
We’re talking about fall detection, the Life Alert feature on the Apple Watch. While many of us remember the iconic “I fell and can’t get up ” moment from those old ads, this is no joke, and your Apple Watch can really save you in a situation like this.
How fall detection works
When your watch thinks you fell, it sends you an alert asking you to. If everything is okay, that’s okay, just click ” Cancel” in the alert. However, if you don’t answer within a minute and the Apple Watch doesn’t detect movement, it starts a 30-second countdown. At this time, he emits a sound signal, which becomes louder and louder, while tactilely tapping on the wrist. If you do not click Cancel after 30 seconds, the watch will call 911 on your behalf.
Apple Watch sends an automatic message to emergency services informing them that a fall has been detected, but also sends SMS to your emergency contacts to alert them. This combination of messages has saved people from some dangerous situations, stories of which are surfacing in the news with alarming frequency.
Apple Watch drop detection saves lives all the time
The latest example is from Ottawa , where an 85-year-old man fell in his home and hit his head. While the man was knocked unconscious by the impact, his Apple Watch immediately contacted emergency services. The operator, who could then hear the person breathing and the dog barking when the call was made, sent officers to the scene to investigate.
Fortunately, the man is expected to make a full recovery. However, it’s hard to imagine how this event would have ended if the man had not been wearing an Apple Watch with fall detection enabled.
While this story is certainly inspiring, it is not necessarily unique. There are countless articles and videos on the Internet that describe scenarios in which fall detection saved the life of an Apple Watch user. Back in September, a motorcyclist was the victim of a collision ; while he collapsed as a result of the fall, his Apple Watch was able to call emergency services on his behalf.
Reddit user u / KzooRichie noted that Apple Watch helped their father , who fell and broke his spine. The 92-year-old man “would be dead” if his watch had not called emergency services after falling down a staircase .
In one of the Dear Apple videos, in which Apple Watch owners share their health stories with the company, one man describes how Fall Detection immediately called emergency services and alerted his wife, who had been designated as his emergency contact. situations.
The point is, this feature works and saves lives. The problem is, you have to make sure it’s turned on first. Fall detection is only automatically triggered if you’re 55 or older on your Apple Watch or the Health app. If you are under 55 years old or have not entered your age, this feature will not be enabled by default.
Which Apple Watch supports drop detection?
Fall detection is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and later. This includes:
- Apple Watch Series 4
- Apple Watch Series 5
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch SE
- Apple Watch Series 7
Unfortunately, Apple Watch Series 3 and earlier do not support this feature. If you’re still looking for a great Christmas present this holiday season and someone you know doesn’t have a Series 4 or newer, you might consider buying one.
How to enable fall detection on Apple Watch
Open the Watch app on your iPhone, then select Emergency SOS. Check the radio button next to Fall Detection; if it’s gray, tap it to switch to green, then tap Confirm on the pop-up window. If you wish, you can only turn on fall detection during training, in case you fall during training, but it is safest to keep it on all the time.
However, there are times when fall detection is triggered when you weren’t actually falling – for example, if you are involved in a sport that requires diving or jumping to the ground. Fortunately, the watch will give you plenty of alerts before you call emergency services; just remember to hit ” Cancel ” as soon as you can.
How to set up emergency contacts to work with fall detection
If your Apple Watch ends up calling emergency services, it will also send a message to all the emergency contacts you’ve turned on. To check these contacts or add new ones, go to Watch> Emergency SOS> Edit these Contacts in Health . Now scroll down and tap “ add emergency contact ”, select a name from your contacts list, and then select their relationship to you. Repeat this process to add additional contacts.