A quick story about Apple Watch fall detection

Every morning at about 6 am I take our dog Charlotte out for a short walk up our driveway so she can do her business. Our driveway is gravel and is about 200 yards from the house to the road. On the way back down the driveway I let her off-leash so she can run around a bit. Yesterday we decided to run the last 50 yards to the house together. You can probably guess what’s coming. Yes, I took a serious tumble.

Charlotte decided to cut in front of me and tripped me. I went head first and landed on my left side with my arm extended to somewhat break my fall. Fall detection went off on my watch. I just laid there deciding whether I needed help or not. In the end, I didn’t. But it was good to know that if I had needed it I would have gotten it. I’m okay aside from having a seriously sore left shoulder and bruised ribs.

Here’s how fall detection works

If Apple Watch Series 4 or later detects a hard fall while you’re wearing your watch, it taps you on the wrist, sounds an alarm, and displays an alert. You can choose to contact emergency services or dismiss the alert by pressing the Digital Crown, tapping Close in the upper-left corner, or tapping “I’m OK.”

Message that “It looks like you’ve taken a hard fall.” 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.

After the call ends, your watch sends a message to your emergency contacts with your location letting them know that your watch detected a hard fall and dialed emergency services. Your watch gets your emergency contacts from your Medical ID.

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