Does the 911 feature require iPhone?

[harpyeagle]

This for me doesn't seem to be obvious from the product reveal or from Apple's webpage.

Does anyone know if the watch can call 911 independently when it's not connected to the iPhone that it was originally paired with?

I don't want to try it to find out

 

[RadioGaGa1984]

The Apple Watch has no cellular connectivity.

 

[harpyeagle]

Ah, you are right. I was confused as this feature got a special mention during the reveal when you can call any number when it's connected to the phone via "Hey Siri" or whatever..maybe because how quickly you can make this call.

Anyways, thanks.

 

[BarracksSi]

It's more of an "I've fallen and I can't get up" feature.

I met some people trying to start a similar project for smartphones, too, actually…

 

[teidon]

If WiFi calling is a thing where you live and if you have set it up the Watch can make a WiFi call when it's connected to a known WiFi network. Apple support doc About SOS on Apple Watch.

 

[locksmack]

It would be cool if the Apple Watch was able to call emergency services from ANY nearby iPhone. Unless you are hiking in the bush, there is almost always an iPhone within Bluetooth range. It would be awesome and ironic to use an attackers iPhone to alert authorities!

 

[harpyeagle]

That's a great idea! Especially using the attacker's phone to call 911!

I don't know if the watch needs full blown cell phone circuitry to just call 911 (think it does need to for making any calls), but it'd be great to have this feature w/o any Phone/Wi-Fi. To me, the watch sudddenly becomes so much more useful if this happens. But yes, if they need to go all the way out to do this, then they might as well use it to make regular calls.

Sigh..hopefully series 3 where w/o a SIM card (and hence no n/w fees/subscription), just like a cell phone, it can make independent emergency calls.