Apple Watch Series 4 Fall Detection Feature is Off by Default Unless You're 65+

[Mac 128]

One other interesting thing to note is Apple insists there are 3 options you are given after Fall Detection has gone off. 1) call 911 2) I fell but I am OK and 3) I did not fall. The 3rd option has never appeared. It is possible that one has to scroll down the page to see it, but that certainly is not intuitive. I noticed that the image of the fall detection at the top of this article does not show the 3rd option, although it talks about it. I would assume if the 3rd option were actually available that it might learn to disregard that pattern and would not trip again for the same reason.

If you look closely at the pic at the top of the article, you can see the third gray option button just under the second before it disappears into the bezel. If you scroll down it will appear. I’m surprised that there is no scroll indicator by the Digital Crown as I have seen on other screens that offer scrolled content.

 

[Sawdustman]

Apple Watch Series 4 has a new feature called Fall Detection, which uses the new next-generation gyroscope and accelerometer to detect a fall and provide options to contact emergency services if necessary.

As it turns out, Fall Detection is disabled for most users and will need to be manually enabled. In an Apple support document found by a Reddit user, Apple explains that Fall Detection only turns on automatically if you've set your age on Apple Watch or in the Health app and you're over 65 years old.

If you are not over age 65 and want to use Fall Detection, it will need to be enabled in the Emergency SOS section of the Apple Watch app.

Apple's support document also explains other aspects of the Fall Detection feature. When the Apple Watch Series 4 detects a "significant, hard fall" with Fall Detection enabled, it taps you on the wrist, sounds an alarm, and displays an alert.

From the options that display on the screen, you can select either "I fell but I'm OK," "I did not fall," or "Emergency SOS" to contact emergency services.

If the Apple Watch detects that you're moving, it will wait for a response, but if you're immobile for about a minute, it will begin a 15-second countdown before automatically calling emergency services and alerting emergency contacts that are set up in Medical ID in the Health app on iPhone.

Fall Detection in the Series 4 was tested over the weekend by multiple YouTube channels to see how the feature works and how hard of a fall is necessary to cause an alert.

Test falls onto softer surfaces like foam or carpet didn't seem to trigger the Fall Detection feature, but harder falls onto less forgiving surfaces did appear to work better. YouTube testers were not able to get the feature to trigger with each and every fall, suggesting there's some margin of error, which users should be aware of.

Apple says it gathered data from thousands of people over a period of time to create the Fall Detection algorithms, which are able to test both forward facing falls with wrists out and backward facing slips with wrists up.

Apple does warn in its support document that the Apple Watch Series 4 won't detect all falls, and also says that false positives are possible. "The more physically active you are, the more likely you are to trigger fall detection due to high impact activity that can appear to be a fall," reads the document.

Given the possibility of false positives for active adults, most people will likely want to leave this feature disabled, but it's a good idea to know how to turn it on if you may need it.

Article Link: Apple Watch Series 4 Fall Detection Feature is Off by Default Unless You're 65+

[doublepost=1537837547][/doublepost]When I took my watch off it’s charging stand to put it on this morning it detected the move as a fall. I was sitting on the edge of my bed but I guess I picked it up too quickly.

 

[noraa]

Main selling feature 1) ECG. "Coming soon*". *Oh, only in the USA.
Main selling feature 2) Fall detection. Off by default.

Airpower "coming soon". Airpods 2 "coming soon". Apple Pay Cash "coming soon", Duel sim "coming soon". Modular MacPro "coming soon". Multiple face time chat "coming soon". New Apple maps "Coming soon", Homepod Stereo Pair "Wasnt available at launch". Portrait mode "Wasnt available at Launch". Apple Pay, "Took generations of iPhone to arrive in most 1st world countries". etc.

I have seen Kickstarter scam products with more deliverables.

Let's see:
ECG coming soon and only US - specifically stated, if you're buying the Apple Watch for that specific feature, just wait until it's available. Plus, the reason it isn't available outside the US (at least not yet) is regulatory in nature (that's why they received FDA approval in the US). The hardware is there and working, this just requires a software update.
Fall Protection - it's there, just enable it...not sure why that is such a hard thing to do?

As for everything else..
AirPower - not accepting preorders, so no money was taken. It may, sadly, be vaporware, but it certainly isn't like a Kickstarter scam.
AirPods 2 - never announced, only rumored, so you're just making **** up there.
Apple Pay Cash - working fine for me!
Duel Sim - available in countries that support it. Not Apple's fault that US carriers haven't gotten on board yet. Again, the hardware is there and working.
Group FaceTime - delayed, but currently available (and working) in iOS 12.1 and macOS 10.14.1 betas.
New Apple Maps - slowly being rolled out across the US, starting in California. San Francisco has already been updated.
HomePod Stereo Pair - specifically stated by Apple, before anyone purchased, that it wouldn't be available at launch. Well it is now!
Portrait Mode - see above.
Apple Pay - was never promised to be world wide immediately. Implementing a new payment system isn't exactly an easy task, nor is it a task that a single company can do alone, as it required support from the various banks and credit card companies.

Basically, you're complaining to complain...because you like to complain about Apple?

 

[Cloudane]

Couldn't resist...

 

[ravenstar]

The fall detection is based on accelerometer and gyroscope. It shouldn't matter how you brace yourself or what body part hits the ground or how tense you are.

You can't seriously believe the watch knows when you're faking it. [emphasis added] BTW some of falls on YouTube are exaggerated just to try to activate the thing. If those aren't detected then I have serious doubts tripping and falling in your house will reliably work....

Well, yes, I can actually. I thought Tim Cook explained this rather well in the introduction. The watch isn't just looking at the force of a movement, but on the distinct sequences of moves that occur during certain kinds of falls, specifically tripping forward and slipping over backward. That these events might trigger involuntary movements that are different from those produced by an intentional fall isn't at all far fetched. This is exactly the kind of event where good data collection and analysis can lead to an effective practical application.

It's not particularly new technology as this kind of signal pattern analysis has been applied in other fields (e.g. ECG analysis) for decades, so there's no reason to believe it can't be done and done well with the Apple watch. We won't really know how well it works in practice until we have reports of people who experience these kinds of accidents and their watches do or don't detect the fall. If it works well for the target audience, those who are most susceptible to injury from accidental falls, this feature is a big deal.

My elderly mother had multiple falls at home, and upon watching the recent video's about what type of fall, or rather how HARD a fall has to be, to trigger this fall detection, I can quite confidently say, unfortunately this new watch would not have been of any use to her whatsoever.
Her falls, whilst hard for her, and landed her in hospital would not have been hard and sudden enough to have gotton help for her.
I urge people not to rely on giving an elderly person one of these and assuming it will be enough to get help to someone after a fall.

You already know how great the risk of falls is to the elderly so before you discount the technology learn a little more about it. The fact that it's not detecting fake falls isn't necessarily a failure. I doubt any elderly person is going to intentionally throw themselves to the ground trying to set their watch off. If you're skeptical, at least wait for some real world reports of its reliability before discounting it.

As to your final point, yes, of course, even if it works, it's a backup for when fall prevention measures fail, but a working backup is better than no backup. There are many simple things that we often overlook that can help reduce fall risk in the elderly, and prevention is far better than detection.

 

[Mac 128]

I thought Tim Cook explained this rather well in the introduction. The watch isn't just looking at the force of a movement, but on the distinct sequences of moves that occur during certain kinds of falls, specifically tripping forward and slipping over backward. That these events might trigger involuntary movements that are different from those produced by an intentional fall isn't at all far fetched. This is exactly the kind of event where good data collection and analysis can lead to an effective practical application.

I’d like to know exactly how they collected all that actual real fall data.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

AirPods 2 - never announced, only rumored, so you're just making **** up there.

Riddle me this. What is sitting on the airpower mat in the promotional images next to the watch and phone? Because my airpods don't have wireless charging. There were apple promotional pictures released at the announcement of airpower showing a redesign with the LED on the outside. Sorry, not sorry that I pay attention to things.

On your other point.

You are damn right I am complaining. I like apple, I REMEMBER Apple, what it was like not even several years ago. Now we are paying twice as more (inflation adjusted) for products which are sold on features that are not even implemented when they leave the store. It's a trillion dollar company, I demand better! Because a ~200 billion dollar company did it better 15 years ago. Namely Apple.

 

[chucker23n1]

Riddle me this. What is sitting on the airpower mat in the promotional images next to the watch and phone? Because my airpods don't have wireless charging.

Not the same thing. As Apple said, there will be a wireless charging case for AirPods to work with AirPower.

It does not follow that there will be an entire new generation of AirPods themselves.

You are damn right I am complaining. I like apple, I REMEMBER Apple, what it was like not even several years ago. Now we are paying twice as more (inflation adjusted) for products which are sold on features that are not even implemented when they leave the store. It's a trillion dollar company, I demand better! Because a ~200 billion dollar company did it better 15 years ago. Namely Apple.

A good case can be made that Apple has started preannouncing too many things long before they were ready. However, I don't really see any relation to their pricing or to customer satisfaction. You're not really getting screwed over; they're kind of screwing themselves by overpromising.

 

[noraa]

Riddle me this. What is sitting on the airpower mat in the promotional images next to the watch and phone? Because my airpods don't have wireless charging. There were apple promotional pictures released at the announcement of airpower showing a redesign with the LED on the outside. Sorry, not sorry that I pay attention to things.

On your other point.

You are damn right I am complaining. I like apple, I REMEMBER Apple, what it was like not even several years ago. Now we are paying twice as more (inflation adjusted) for products which are sold on features that are not even implemented when they leave the store. It's a trillion dollar company, I demand better! Because a ~200 billion dollar company did it better 15 years ago. Namely Apple.

Here's the thing, a promotional image is just that, a promotional image. You have no idea if those are new AirPods, or simply the announced wireless charging AirPods case - which obviously hasn't been released.

The thing is, Apple didn't take preorders for this wireless case, or for the AirPower. Yeah, it's frustrating that neither have come out yet (and possibly never will in regards to AirPower) - but there's a big difference b/w announcing something and not delivering and announcing something, taking your money, and then not delivering.

In addition, everything Apple has ever pre-announced they have been very specific in the fact that this is a pre-announcement and said feature won't be available immediately at launch. If the main reason you want to bet a product is for a specific feature that is not yet available, such as the ECG in the new Apple Watch, you can wait for the feature to go live - no one is forcing you to buy the product before then.

And, furthermore, this has happened to Apple multiple times in the past as well - specifically with push notifications (announced for iPhone OS 2, but not actually delivered until a year later in iPhone OS 3) and the 500 MHz PowerMac G4. Worse off, with the 500MHz PowerMac G4 Apple compensated for the yield issues by lowering the frequency of ALL the PowerMac's by 50MHz post purchase without offering a reduced price. And remember, this happened under Jobs purview.

Basically, Apple has never been a perfect company - they have always made mistakes and controversial decisions. The difference b/w now and then is two fold - Jobs was an unbelievable salesman, and he truly did create a reality distortion field around everything he did. Second, Apple is pre-announcing too many thing. I don't see this as over promising and under delivering (as short of AirPower, everything that they have pre-announced has been delivered, just longer than most users would like), but a sign that Apple needs to stop pre-announcing so many things. If Apple had never mentioned AirPower, or Group FaceTime, or HomePod stereo capability, etc. no one would be complaining about these lack of features.

In short, too many people, you included, look at past Apple through rose colored glasses and fail to recognize how today's Apple isn't all that different than past Apple.

 

[leilajake]

Cant recall ever seeing anyone over 65 with an Apple Watch...

Hubby 65 has new series 4, father 78 and mother 76 both have series 2 but are considering buying s4 because of this feature!. Also number of our 60+ friends.
Whilst fall detection may be in early stages l am sure with more people using the, and more data collected they will become more accurate. And when all is said and done if it helps even a few people it’s worth it!

 

[ravenstar]

I’d like to know exactly how they collected all that actual real fall data.

Some commenters have suggested that they collected data from nursing home residents. It's an area of research and a feature that isn't limited to Apple, so it's entirely plausible.

 

[d21mike]

Not sure if something wrong with my watch or not. I have had 2 or 3 FALSE Detections within the first week. I am 69 and it is kind of hard to read the watch. I did click on "I did not fall" once or twice but not sure I did one of the times. The first time was when I was taking a trash bag out and lifted with my left (watch hand) toss in bag with my right. And it said SOS it appears you have FALLEN HARD. Of course I did not. I think that happen twice. And last night my son was looking at it at dinner and he dropped it on his menu (like 1 foot) and it went off.

 

[Mac 128]

Not sure if something wrong with my watch or not. I have had 2 or 3 FALSE Detections within the first week. I am 69 and it is kind of hard to read the watch. I did click on "I did not fall" once or twice but not sure I did one of the times. The first time was when I was taking a trash bag out and lifted with my left (watch hand) toss in bag with my right. And it said SOS it appears you have FALLEN HARD. Of course I did not. I think that happen twice. And last night my son was looking at it at dinner and he dropped it on his menu (like 1 foot) and it went off.

Interesting. If 911 starts getting called for lots of false alarms where the user is unaware it went off, or fails to correctly tap the correct button, this really could be an embarrassing scandal. Worse if it fails to go off at all.

If there’s a real problem here, it won’t go unreported.

 

[ctdonath]

Fall detection works.

I just casually jumped over a bench, snagged my toe, and fell hard. Probably caused a couple bruises.

About 2 seconds after hitting the ground, the watch tapped, displayed "seems you just had a hard fall" etc, showed the SOS slider, and a "I fell but I'm OK" button.

Good job, Apple.

 

[Photoguy]

Interesting. If 911 starts getting called for lots of false alarms where the user is unaware it went off, or fails to correctly tap the correct button, this really could be an embarrassing scandal. Worse if it fails to go off at all.

If there’s a real problem here, it won’t go unreported.

I turned on fall detection on my Apple Watch 4 a couple of days ago. Today I had three false alarms from the watch about falls. Two, when I was using a pole trimmer to cut some branches from a tall tree and the third one while in the middle of a tennis game. I had to press a button each time to cancel the possible 911 call.

It seems that the app needs a little refinement yet!

 

[Photoguy]

I turned on fall detection on my Apple Watch 4 a couple of days ago. Today I had three false alarms from the watch about falls. Two, when I was using a pole trimmer to cut some branches from a tall tree and the third one while in the middle of a tennis game. I had to press a button each time to cancel the possible 911 call.

It seems that the app needs a little refinement yet!

[doublepost=1538680204][/doublepost]Today, I had another fall detection false alarm. This time while I was digging a hole to plant some bulbs!

 

[mafeldman]

I am 66 years old and just had my first false positive after just four days of wearing the watch. I was simply putting on a shirt and apparently my arm movements confused the watch.

 

[billpennock]

Cant recall ever seeing anyone over 65 with an Apple Watch...

Well you are definitely the definitive authority on who owns the Apple Watch. Bill Pennock 68 with MANY friends who have apple watch. Perhaps the fact that you haven't actually noticed holds (limited/not/marginal/some) value to bother replying?
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I am 66 years old and just had my first false positive after just four days of wearing the watch. I was simply putting on a shirt and apparently my arm movements confused the watch.

I just had a false positive. I was getting the mail and dropped about 1/2 of it on the ground trying to hold too many things at once. Same as I've done most of my life. It's just a thing. Anyway about the time i picked it all up the phone started going crazy on my wrist but both hands were full. Got inside and put some down and found it was "threatening" to call 911 maybe. I don't know I'm 68 and yes my eyes aren't what they were (you 20 year olds will get there so shutup. PS I used to laugh at that too). So while I wasn't sure all the language on the face I did see "Dismiss" and pushed it and the watch shut up. So far the paramedics and hook and ladder truck haven't shown up so I suspect it worked.

 

[gavroche]

Well you are definitely the definitive authority on who owns the Apple Watch. Bill Pennock 68 with MANY friends who have apple watch. Perhaps the fact that you haven't actually noticed holds (limited/not/marginal/some) value to bother replying?

I am the definitive authority in nothing other than I made a personal observation about what I had seen. You may feel my personal observation meaningless, but it is no more so than your deciding to ridicule me for my ovservation. I suppose you are saying that your observations are clearly so much more valuable than mine.
Are you having a bad day today? Why such hostility?