The Apple Watch is an impressive device, capable of saving lives, yes, saving lives! It is incredible what Apple has achieved with “just” putting a watch on our wrists, and just from that, one of the functions with what the Apple Watch has to save lives we are going to talk to you today. Did you know that the Apple Watch can detect when you have fallen and even call your emergency contacts for you? Keep reading to know all the information.
As we told you, the Apple Watch is a device very focused on people’s health, in fact, several cases are already known in which the Apple watch has been the protagonist as it is vital to save a person’s life, and it is that, that’s just what you can do with your fall detection. What is this about the detection of falls? Very simple, when you suffer a fall, the Apple Watch will detect it and give you the option of calling one of your emergency contacts in case, the fall itself has been so serious as to have to ask for help, even if the fall has been even more important and you have been left unconscious, when the Apple Watch detects that you do not react, it will be the one that sends a notification to your emergency contacts.
Requirements needed for functionality
First of all, you should know that this is a function that not all existing Apple Watch models enjoy, since only the following are supported:
- Apple Watch Series 4
- Apple Watch Series 5
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch SE
First, activate the fall detector
If you meet the first condition regarding compatibility to be able to use fall detection, you are ready for the next step. This is simply having fall detection enabled in settings. To do this, you just have to follow the following steps:
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and tap the My Watch tab.
- Click SOS Emergency.
- Activate Fall Detection.
However, you can skip this step if you are 55 or older and you indicated your age when setting up your Apple Watch since, then, it will be activated automatically. Therefore, we recommend that you make sure that your true age appears in the medical file and the profile of the Health app. Also, you have to know that Fall Detection is only available for people over 18 years old .
Finally, another requirement is that at the time of the fall, you have a mobile line available that can make the call, therefore, either you need to have an Apple Watch that has LTE connectivity, or you need to have the iPhone nearby so that the emergency call can occur.
How does this fall detector work?
In case the Apple Watch detects a strong fall while you are wearing it , it will tap your wrist, emit a sound and show an alert on the screen, then you can choose between two options, contact the emergency services or Ignore the alert message if you press the Digital Crown, tap Close in the upper left corner or select I’m fine.
If after the fall, the Apple Watch detects that you are moving, it will wait until you respond to the alert message that occurs on the screen and will not automatically call emergency services, however, if it does not detect movement for about a minute, will make the call automatically, when the emergency services answer the call the Apple Watch will play an audio message in which it informs the emergency services that it has detected a strong fall and, later, your current location will be indicated in latitude coordinates and length.
When this call ends, the Apple Watch sends a message to your emergency contacts with your location to inform them that it was the Apple Watch that detected a fall and called the emergency services. The watch obtains your emergency contacts from your Medical Record configured in the Health App. If you have not configured the Medical Card, keep reading that we will tell you how to do it.
Set up your medical file
As you have seen, it is vital that you configure your Medical Record so that, in the event of a fall, the Apple Watch can function properly and notify both emergencies and your emergency contacts. To configure follow the following steps.
- Open Settings on the iPhone and click Health> Medical Card.
- Tap Edit.
- Enter your date of birth and other health information.
- To add an emergency contact tap the “+” button in the emergency contacts.
- To delete an emergency contact tap the “-” button in the emergency contacts.
- To make your Medical Card visible on the lock screen, activate the Show on screen option. lock To share your medical file with the emergency service, activate Share on emergency call.
- Tap OK.
