We all love shiny bell shape and whistles but engineering , like referees , is often at its best when you do n’t notice it . declivity detection , one of the headline feature of the Apple Watch Series 4 , is a good example .
As the name propose , the feature is design to notice when you hang over heavily , pop up an onscreen query asking if you ’re fine , and offer to call an ambulance . If you stay still for roughly a hour , it will call the ambulance mechanically without user input .
Most of us , with luck , will never need this feature film , but ( especially for the elderly , those with disabilities , or other at - risk of infection groups ) it ’s nice to know it ’s there . In this article we explicate how to turn on and use fall espial on your Apple Watch .
What you need
AnApple Watch Series 4 . This feature is not available on any other picket ( although it will presumably be kept for theSeries 5 ) .
You do n’t postulate toupdate watchOS ; the Series 4 will pop the question surrender detection out of the box .
Turn on fall detection
First up , if you ’re aged 65 or over and have told your Apple Watch this fact when ready it up ( or added your age to the Health app at any point ) , then shine detection will be turned on by default option .
Those who are younger than 65 will require to open up the Watch app on the pair iPhone and , from the My Watch tab , tap Emergency SOS ( near the bottom of the second chemical group of options ) , then wrick on pin catching . Tap the slider again to reverse the feature off .
How fall detection works
With the feature article activated , your lookout man will begin looking out for suspicious activity . If it thinks you ’ve taken a heavy fall , it will give you a haptic ‘ pat ’ on the wrist joint and protrude up an onscreen query call for whether you ’re okay , and extend to call the emergency inspection and repair .
Swipe across the slider EMERGENCY SOS to agree to this . you could tell it you ’re fine , or just leave it , and no ambulance will be called – acquire you ’re motivate around normally again .
( When we first tested this feature of speech back in fall 2018 , it offer two ‘ everything ’s okay ’ option – I fell but I ’m all right , or I did n’t fall at all , presumptively so it could get unspoilt at give chase your movements . But at clip of writing you just get ‘ I ’m OK ’ . )
If you ’ve stick mostly still since the fall , the vigil will adopt more drastic steps . After a mo of stationariness , it will start up a 15 - second countdown , exploit you and pee an more and more loud stochasticity as it goes . At the end of this countdown if will call the parking brake services . Tap Cancel to stop this happening , then confirm .
In either case , after calling the emergency services the watch will send word your emergency contact , passing on your localization and say them that you fell and that the exigency service have been contacted .
Undetected falls and false positives
Apple explicitly warns that gloaming detection wo n’t detect all descent . plain to some extent this will reckon on how severe the fall is , and it ’s in all likelihood for the good if it does n’t start nagging you with popups every time you slimly stumble . But you should n’t relay on even quite intemperate falls being detected every time .
As part of ourApple Watch Series 4 reviewwe deliberately fell over , as hard as we could , six time , and only two of these resulted in the popup . Then again , since these were by necessity ‘ imitation ’ falls , it ’s potential that the winner rate would be high with the real thing .
On the other side , the company also warn that very physically participating masses may get false positives when the watch erroneously thinks “ high - impingement activity ” is a fall . We ’ve not had any false positives , although this may say more about our lifestyles than about the accuracy of nightfall detection .
