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Apple Shares Apple Watch SOS Success Story

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Apple today highlighted the SOS feature in the Apple Watch, publishing a short video featuring a man named Phil, who crashed while mountain biking.


Phil was biking with his two young children when he had an accident and was knocked unconscious. His Apple Watch detected the fall, calling emergency services and alerting his wife.

He ended up breaking his collarbone and seven ribs, but was able to receive help quickly because his watch gave emergency services his location. Phil was in the hospital for a week, and at the end of the video, he said "Just really glad that I had my Apple Watch on."

The Apple Watch is able to detect serious falls and vehicle crashes, getting help when the wearer is unconscious or unable to get help on their own. It calls emergency services automatically, and alerts a person's emergency contacts.

Article Link: Apple Shares Apple Watch SOS Success Story
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/07/21/apple-watch-sos-success-story/
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I had a panic moment the other morning. I woke up after wearing my Apple Watch to sleep. My overactive Italian Greyhound wanted to play so I was pulling her back and forth on the bed on her back. Apparently the play noises she was making and the motions of moving her must have matched a car accident. Suddenly my watch is blaring an alarm and shows something ominous on the screen. I haven't put my glasses on yet so have no idea what it's doing. Well, it was nice enough to call 911 for me. I don't think I've seen a cop try and keep a straight face like they did as I explained the dog situation when they arrived.
 
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Terrific. Let me share mine.

IMG_3548.jpeg
 
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Not saying fall and accident detection is a bad feature. But it did cause a major panic in our family when it notified everyone of an accident and almost notified emergency services a couple of weeks ago. What actually happened was that the phone fell maybe 50 cm from the center console while driving. Made me wonder how accurate the feature is and how many false alarms it triggers.
 
pbau said:
I would be great to see the SOS via Satellite working in Poland finally.
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This had nothing to with Satellite SOS, just normal Cellular (probably via his iPhone). Still I hope you get SOS via Satellite soon. Good thing is you don't need to buy new Hardware for this feature and can wait.
 
MilaM said:
Not saying fall and accident detection is a bad feature. But it did cause a major panic in our family when it notified everyone of an accident and almost notified emergency services a couple of weeks ago. What actually happened was that the phone fell maybe 50 cm from the center console while driving. Made me wonder how accurate the feature is and how many false alarms it triggers.
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Never triggered it on an iPhone but the watch has a "countdown" before it calls emergency services and notifies of 10 or 15 seconds, you can tap "I did fall but I'm ok" or "false alarm" or something like that.
Me, I'd rather get a false alarm than missing a real incident, but that's just me.
 
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I had a 50ft fall a year ago and my Apple Watch immediately stepped in to get me assistance. It alerted my wife, sister, and mother and then called 911 on my behalf because I was unable to move my body or retrieve my phone from my pocket. Thankfully, I survived.
Of course, I was at Canada’s Wonderland on Leviathan, and hadn’t realized any of this had happened until the panicked call from my mother.
 
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I read it too quickly and thought that’s Phil Schiller! It’s always good to hear a good use of technology.
 
jz0309 said:
Never triggered it on an iPhone but the watch has a "countdown" before it calls emergency services and notifies of 10 or 15 seconds, you can tap "I did fall but I'm ok" or "false alarm" or something like that.
Me, I'd rather get a false alarm than missing a real incident, but that's just me.
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In our case the phone fell while driving, so it wasn't easy to grab it quickly and turn off the automatic call without potentially causing a real accident.

A friend had a similar false alarm when riding a bike. It triggered inside a backpack, and he did not notice the voice prompt announcing the emergency call.

I like the concept, but I think it needs some refining. That's all I'm saying.
 
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Unfortunately, I had use of the crash feature a few weeks and it was amazingly good. This is one thing I don't think gets enough press and should.
 
When I first got my watch it was a little sensitive and asked if I had fallen when I used a hammer and a few other times. It was no big deal and it seemed to learn quickly enough. But since 26.5 now it goes off all the time. I’m hoping it will learn. It went off a couple days ago when I swatted a mosquito.
 
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Arislan said:
I had a panic moment the other morning. I woke up after wearing my Apple Watch to sleep. My overactive Italian Greyhound wanted to play so I was pulling her back and forth on the bed on her back. Apparently the play noises she was making and the motions of moving her must have matched a car accident. Suddenly my watch is blaring an alarm and shows something ominous on the screen. I haven't put my glasses on yet so have no idea what it's doing. Well, it was nice enough to call 911 for me. I don't think I've seen a cop try and keep a straight face like they did as I explained the dog situation when they arrived.
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You should have alerted asking if a fall or what happened to you before auto calling emergency?

I once slapped the table and triggered the alert too. Dunno how it was triggered likely a specific patten of shocking the watch.
 
I crashed my ebike once
turbineseaplane said:
Heartwarming stuff.

I fell down trail running and had to tape myself up all on my own.
It's a good thing I didn't hit my head like Phil did!

☹️
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Phil is lucky to be alive. Even professional mountain bikers have died in accidents. I once had an accident on an e-bike. I was knocked unconscious and broke my right scapula along with 2 ribs.
 
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Terry2023 said:
When I first got my watch it was a little sensitive and asked if I had fallen when I used a hammer and a few other times. It was no big deal and it seemed to learn quickly enough. But since 26.5 now it goes off all the time. I’m hoping it will learn. It went off a couple days ago when I swatted a mosquito.
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Same with me.

A lot of wrong detection - when you work in the kitchen or at garden - some faster arm movement is inevitable, it's a movement rhythmic and repeating (falling down is just one, two or three push - right?) - the watch doesn't learn it!

As many other bugs in watch and iOS software...

I always wonder what these programmers do the whole day?
 
Surprising considering I flipped my motorcycle on a trail last year and my Ultra 2 didn't do anything - but it sure did last week when I started to pressure wash my driveway... But hey if it works for some, good stuff!
 
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