Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I tested fall detection today

Knowlege Bomb said:
I’m curious about the experience/comments from the EMS. What do they hear when they get one of these calls? Is it Siri giving them a message that someone has fallen and is unresponsive with a location? How is the location explained? Nearest intersection? Specific address? GPS? I mean, the guy that fell off the mountain in the commercial would have had to have been a GPS location, no?
Click to expand...

I found this on the aronberglaw.com website:

“The smartwatch plays an audio recording once it has connected to the emergency service number. It informs the emergency service provider that the system was able to detect a hard fall. It shares with the provider the current location of the wearer in terms of longitude and latitude coordinates.

The audio recording plays in a loop. It is at full volume the first time it plays. It plays at a reduced volume in succeeding cycles. This will allow the person or anyone else within the vicinity to talk to the emergency responder. The person can also choose to stop the audio recording.”
 
  • Like
Reactions: scmill
Night Spring said:
This is something I hadn't thought about before -- what DO you hear when the watch calls? Does it show anything on screen to indicate if help is on the way?
Click to expand...

I remember feeling it tapping my wrist (I think that's when I realized I was on the garage floor), and I think I remember it hearing it dialing. I raised my wrist to respond to 911 and accidentally cut them off, so I dialed 911 back. I was able to talk to them just as I would for any call from the watch.

One interesting stat: it recorded the fall in the Health App automatically.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kazmac, Night Spring and deeddawg
jaybar said:
Many of the younger forum members decline fall detection and say they have no need for the feature. Young people fall too. If you have a S4 or later, turn it on.
Click to expand...
I need to turn on the feature whenever I go on bike rides. Actually, I wish Apple made activation of fall detection an optional behind-the-scenes action of recording a bicycle workout.
 
deeddawg said:
Why would you not have it enabled all the time?
Click to expand...
Fair question - It was turned off by default for me during setup, because I am below 55 years old.

Apple's web page on this says "Apple Watch cannot detect all falls. 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."

I do some sports, maybe some activities could trigger a false "fall" detect. However, when you consider how nasty bike ride falls can be, I think I'll turn it on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scmill
Exponent said:
Fair question - It was turned off by default for me during setup, because I am below 55 years old.

Apple's web page on this says "Apple Watch cannot detect all falls. 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."

I do some sports, maybe some activities could trigger a false "fall" detect. However, when you consider how nasty bike ride falls can be, I think I'll turn it on.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I’m not yet 55 (but not far) and mine was on when I looked.

I’m a runner (road and sometimes trail) and occasional cyclist. Probably turned it on on some prior watch model and it carried thru.

Haven’t yet had a false alarm, but I suppose some activities might trigger it as you outline?

JMHO but I’d have it on until/unless there are false alarms.
 
scmill said:
Thanks! I’ll be hobbling for a few days and popping Tylenol, but nothing’s broken.
Click to expand...
So glad you’re okay, and thanks too, for the confirmation fall detection works. Stay safe and may you heal quickly.

We were talking about getting watches here, this feature & being able to call on the watch are pivotal to us.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scmill, Apple_Robert, Night Spring and 2 others
kazmac said:
So glad you’re okay, and thanks too, for the confirmation fall detection works. Stay safe and may you heal quickly.

We were talking about getting watches here, this feature & being able to call on the watch are pivotal to us.
Click to expand...
The peace of mind I have with my cellular Watch and the fall detection is immeasurable.

(I didn't notice a cable by my bed and had a crashing fall onto my tile floors. Landed on my surgically repaired hip, which this many years out from my hip replacement was probably the better choice than landing on my "good" hip. Fall detection was alerted and I turned it off and got myself up and was fine, but I could easily imagine what might have happened had I landed differently and had I been alone. I'm so grateful for my Watch.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: scmill, Apple_Robert and kazmac
artfossil said:
The peace of mind I have with my cellular Watch and the fall detection is immeasurable.

(I didn't notice a cable by my bed and had a crashing fall onto my tile floors. Landed on my surgically repaired hip, which this many years out from my hip replacement was probably the better choice than landing on my "good" hip. Fall detection was alerted and I turned it off and got myself up and was fine, but I could easily imagine what might have happened had I landed differently and had I been alone. I'm so grateful for my Watch.)
Click to expand...
Wow, glad you were okay. Thanks for sharing this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: artfossil
Today I fell while coming down a mountain on a hiking trail, got roughed up because I ended up sliding and hitting some rocks and fallen three branches, but I was Ok. The first thing I noticed was a clearly distinctive/insistent tapping on my wrist and the option to give feedback: "No I did not fell", or "yes, I fell but I'm ok".

On several occasions I tripped or slide on my feet and bumped into trees without falling and the watch did not activate the fall detection. I think it is certainly accurate and with the feedback, it can improve with time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scmill, kazmac, Apple_Robert and 2 others
I had an incident where I walked down stairs too fast carrying groceries and the alarm went off but I couldn’t respond till I put them down after walking 2 flights of stairs. By then EMS had been notified when I called back. Luckily they cancelled the call. I was 2000 miles away and my local home EMS was called so keep that in mind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scmill
Dguitarnut said:
I had an incident where I walked down stairs too fast carrying groceries and the alarm went off but I couldn’t respond till I put them down after walking 2 flights of stairs. By then EMS had been notified when I called back. Luckily they cancelled the call. I was 2000 miles away and my local home EMS was called so keep that in mind.
Click to expand...
I thought it is supposed to call the closest EMS. Otherwise, kind of pointless. Do you have to change some setting to indicate you are in a new area?
 
  • Like
Reactions: scmill
I don’t know. I live in St Petersburg and this happened while I was vacationing in Denver. The EMS was dispatched to my home address. I believe a distress call from a cell phone doesn’t give 911 a location.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scmill
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back