Are you using fall detection?

[Glene]

Of course, why not? But read on about an experience I had last year visiting a friend in Sarasota…

Bottom line, if you get an alert that it perceived a fall, answer it! I occasionally get them when I’m using a hammer or my arm gets jostled like pounding a table etc. etc. it gives me an alert and I tell it to dismiss it. But last year I was going to take a shower and I took the watch off and set it on the counter, I don’t remember banging it when I set it down and I got into the shower like normal. About 45 secs later I heard a very strange sound that I hadn’t heard before, I thought it was from something else in the house and ignored it. It was the second alert, after the one asking you to dismiss it. I finish my shower and go in the other room, I didn’t look at the watch, the next thing I know at my front door are the local EMS people, asking me if everything was OK, 911 had called them. They then handed me a bill for $80 for a false alarm and told me to have a nice day.…

Moral of the story, if you have this feature engaged, realize that it’s going to call if you don’t answer the dismissal! LOL

 

[Apple_Robert]

I think what you posted is a very good reminder to everyone.

I have the feature enabled. And earlier this year, I fell pretty hard twice during an overnight run through the mountains. In both instances, the watch was triggered as I lay on the ground trying to get my bearing and ascertain whether I had cracked some ribs. Both times I heard the watch alert and was able to note I had fallen but was ok. I was able to finish my run but it easy to move as I had before. I severely bruised my ribs, lost some leg and hand skin. All my trouble could have been averted with a better running light. Hard lesson learned. As a long distance runner, I often find myself out in the middle of nowhere when everyone else is normally sleeping. I am thankful for the feature.

 

[JulianL]

Oops. Excellent advice. I have mine switched on because of my “why not?” reasoning.

Maybe in future Apple could evolve it from a simple on-off toggle to a 3-choice setting - off, call-on-fall-unless-cancelled (i.e. you need to explicitly stop it calling EMS) and a new third call-on-fall-if-instructed (i.e. you need to explicitly tell it to go ahead and make the call to EMS) option. That last new option would obviously need to make it as easy as possible to initiate the call, perhaps turning the whole screen into a big call/cancel button and making appropriate noises and maybe also voice prompts. It does of course assume that the faller is conscious but might at least be a somewhat useful half way house that some fit and healthy younger people might want to enable on the same “why not?” rationale as me and be better protected against the experience you describe.

I wonder what that EMS call is like? Does anyone know? Is it an automated voice telling the call handler that it is an automatic call initiated by an Apple Watch? If yes then in theory, if the user set an option to give it permission, it could also give the call handler the mobile phone number associated with the watch or paired iPhone so that the EMS or call handler could attempt to call that number to validate the request for help. That might be another useful safeguard for Apple to add if it doesn’t already do that.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Oops. Excellent advice. I have mine switched on because of my “why not?” reasoning.

Maybe in future Apple could evolve it from a simple on-off toggle to a 3-choice setting - off, call-on-fall-unless-cancelled (i.e. you need to explicitly stop it calling EMS) and a new third call-on-fall-if-instructed (i.e. you need to explicitly tell it to go ahead and make the call to EMS) option. That last new option would obviously need to make it as easy as possible to initiate the call, perhaps turning the whole screen into a big call/cancel button and making appropriate noises and maybe also voice prompts. It does of course assume that the faller is conscious but might at least be a somewhat useful half way house that some fit and healthy younger people might want to enable on the same “why not?” rationale as me and be better protected against the experience you describe.

I wonder what that EMS call is like? Does anyone know? Is it an automated voice telling the call handler that it is an automatic call initiated by an Apple Watch? If yes then in theory, if the user set an option to give it permission, it could also give the call handler the mobile phone number associated with the watch or paired iPhone so that the EMS or call handler could attempt to call that number to validate the request for help. That might be another useful safeguard for Apple to add if it doesn’t already do that.

The support document answers some of your questions.

Use Fall Detection with Apple Watch - Apple Support

If Apple Watch detects a hard fall, it can help connect you to emergency services if needed.

support.apple.com

 

[Thirio2]

I turned it off because simple things like stooping down to pick up something off the ground would set it off and since I don’t always feel the tap (silent mode) I didn’t want it calling 911 for no good reason.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I turned it off because simple things like stooping down to pick up something off the ground would set it off and since I don’t always feel the tap (silent mode) I didn’t want it calling 911 for no good reason.

That is not normal. If it’s happens again, you need to have Apple look at your watch. The watch should only trigger after a hard fall.

 

[Feek]

Yes, I have it on and when I fell over on 30th November last year it popped up, I stupidly thought "I'm a big boy, I'm fine" so I stretched out and just managed to tap 'I'm OK' before reality struck.

Guess what?

I wasn't OK. I should have let it call the emergency services because I couldn't get up. I'd broken my shoulder really badly, I now have a plate, three screws and eight pins in it and I'll never get full movement back.

Letting the phone call for help wouldn't have made any difference to what happened but it would have meant that I wouldn't have been laying on the pavement at 23:30 waiting for someone, anyone, to stop and help me.

 

[BrettDS]

Maybe in future Apple could evolve it from a simple on-off toggle to a 3-choice setting - off, call-on-fall-unless-cancelled (i.e. you need to explicitly stop it calling EMS) and a new third call-on-fall-if-instructed (i.e. you need to explicitly tell it to go ahead and make the call to EMS) option. That last new option would obviously need to make it as easy as possible to initiate the call, perhaps turning the whole screen into a big call/cancel button and making appropriate noises and maybe also voice prompts. It does of course assume that the faller is conscious but might at least be a somewhat useful half way house that some fit and healthy younger people might want to enable on the same “why not?” rationale as me and be better protected against the experience you describe.

I feel like that completely defeats the purpose. The whole point is that it can call 911 if you have fallen and are unconscious or injured enough that you can’t call on your own. With your option it just turns into a notification that you have fallen, which I imagine you have probably already noticed on your own. I’m just picturing clippy popping up and saying something like “I noticed that you have fallen”

Perhaps the better middle line would be an ability to adjust the sensitivity so that it would be less likely to falsely trigger with the trade off of knowing that it’s also less likely to trigger on less severe falls.

 

[matrix07]

Of course, why not? But read on about an experience I had last year visiting a friend in Sarasota…

Bottom line, if you get an alert that it perceived a fall, answer it! I occasionally get them when I’m using a hammer or my arm gets jostled like pounding a table etc. etc. it gives me an alert and I tell it to dismiss it. But last year I was going to take a shower and I took the watch off and set it on the counter, I don’t remember banging it when I set it down and I got into the shower like normal. About 45 secs later I heard a very strange sound that I hadn’t heard before, I thought it was from something else in the house and ignored it. It was the second alert, after the one asking you to dismiss it. I finish my shower and go in the other room, I didn’t look at the watch, the next thing I know at my front door are the local EMS people, asking me if everything was OK, 911 had called them. They then handed me a bill for $80 for a false alarm and told me to have a nice day.…

Moral of the story, if you have this feature engaged, realize that it’s going to call if you don’t answer the dismissal! LOL

Doesn’t use it. I’m just too young.

 

[CarolG]

Doesn’t use it. I’m just too young.

You can fall at any age. Or off a skateboard or bike or doing other activities. No one is too young to fall.

 

[matrix07]

You can fall at any age. Or off a skateboard or bike or doing other activities. No one is too young to fall.

I can but rarely I will be unconscious. On the other hands I will do many things that will trigger fall detection unnecessarily so off it goes. This feature is turned off for people under 60 for a reason.

 

[Feek]

This feature is turned off for people under 60 for a reason.

I'm way under 60 - See my post above.

 

[matrix07]

I'm way under 60 - See my post above.

I read it. It’s unfortunate and unfortunately, I can’t turn on something that I will use once in a lifetime but will annoy me daily while I’m doing my things. That’s life.

 

[Feek]

If you're getting it happen daily then I genuinely wonder if you've got a hardware fault.

 

[Lammy]

Of course, why not? But read on about an experience I had last year visiting a friend in Sarasota…

Bottom line, if you get an alert that it perceived a fall, answer it! I occasionally get them when I’m using a hammer or my arm gets jostled like pounding a table etc. etc. it gives me an alert and I tell it to dismiss it. But last year I was going to take a shower and I took the watch off and set it on the counter, I don’t remember banging it when I set it down and I got into the shower like normal. About 45 secs later I heard a very strange sound that I hadn’t heard before, I thought it was from something else in the house and ignored it. It was the second alert, after the one asking you to dismiss it. I finish my shower and go in the other room, I didn’t look at the watch, the next thing I know at my front door are the local EMS people, asking me if everything was OK, 911 had called them. They then handed me a bill for $80 for a false alarm and told me to have a nice day.…

Moral of the story, if you have this feature engaged, realize that it’s going to call if you don’t answer the dismissal! LOL

Where do you live that they gave you a bill?

 

[matrix07]

If you're getting it happen daily then I genuinely wonder if you've got a hardware fault.

Nope. I just bang my hands on regular basis. It’s my job, to be very active.

 

[Allyance]

I fell flat on my back on a very slippery sidewalk at my local McDonalds. Had on an old pair of Crocs that were completely worn on the soles which didn't help things. No harm, just embarrassed, when I got inside I noticed the fall alarm and canceled it before it called 911. I use mainly because I ride a motorcycle on the back roads and if I had a problem, I might not be able to get my iPhone out of my pocket.

 

[jz0309]

On for me. It would have been really helpful 7+ yrs ago when I crashed during mt biking, and I was in a somewhat remote area, and broke my femur. Had another crash a year or so ago but I could respond that I'm ok, I was shaken but otherwise ok.
I think I had 1 instance in the past 2 yrs that it gave me a false fall, otherwise I wear my watch for all activities and I'm rather hard on it ...

 

[iPhonNick]

On my watch, it's enabled.
The watch was triggered once while I was assembling a new work desk for my mom, few months ago.

To make a long story short: I was slamming my hand on the last wooden planks to assemble the desk to it's finished state. Then the watch was triggered, but I, immediately, told the watch I was ok.

It wasn't triggered since then, but I could say it's working like it should and it's an useful function.

 

[antbob]

I guess its kinda hard to fine tune this feature. I mean Apple got money and time but I dont think they are dropping dummies off cliffs or tripping grandpas on curbs. Its most likely based off of a virtual model or play rather than real crash/fall data collected from real accidents.

Why cant just they add a switch like 'only after abrupt deceleration and no sustained movement whatsoever for N seconds'. I would enable that then bc if thats the case then this is when I would really need it. I guess there is some legal risk involved in that too since this is the kind of feature where false positives and false negatives are life and death.

 

[BrettDS]

Why cant just they add a switch like 'only after abrupt deceleration and no sustained movement whatsoever for N seconds'

Actually that’s exactly how it does work. This is from apple’s website here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

If your Apple Watch detects that you're moving, it waits for you to respond to the alert and won't automatically call emergency services. If your watch detects that you have been immobile for about a minute, it will make the call automatically.

 

[Aspasia]

LOL, mine went off once, when I did a gravity launch of my sea kayak down my hillside overlooking the lake I live on. Kayak did okay but I slipped and followed at high speed down the hill. Managed to stop before going into the water and that's when my watch went off. Yikes! I was unhurt and managed to call off the dial to 911 - and my emergency contact. I've wondered if the watch will call 911 if I capsize my kayak and fall out of my boat. Didn't get a chance to try that this summer.

 

[antbob]

Actually that’s exactly how it does work. This is from apple’s website here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

No, thats not what I meant. What it seem to 'think' is movement is you are not staying stationary. What I meant is no movement at all ie you are not only stationary but completely still. What I think would be useful is to have 'Sport' mode like that so if say you take a regular spill your Watch arm is likely to be moving at least a bit like you might be winded or hurting otherwise and need a minute but you'd probably be moving your arms a bit while trying to recover.
No movement at all ie whole body being completely still means something real bad happened like head, neck or spinal injury or trauma meaning you are very unlikely in a state where you can call for help yourself so it should go ahead and trigger that emergency call countdown.

 

[MandiMac]

Yes, I'm using it. Better be safe than sorry. In Europe health insurance is normalized so there's nothing to worry about.

 

[Smoothie]

Yes, I use fall detection. It gave me a warning on September 22, the autumnal equinox. I hope winter detection works as well.