"International emergency calling also works with fall detection, if enabled, to automatically place an emergency call if Apple Watch senses the user has taken a hard fall and remains motionless for about a minute."
I like how they have thought, don't need a sim to make an emergency call, let alone credit, why not add the ability to call emergency services and use the GPS to pick the right local number.
Equally the safety feature for older people is great initiative, though I do feel for younger users, this may cause some false positives and produce an unhappy ending when suddenly your watch has called the emergency services because you had a rest after some form of exercise.
With that in mind, I'd imagine that during that minute a countdown upon the display starts and audible alert of about to call the emergency services - just to limit false positives taking up emergency services time. Also for legit cases, would offer reassurance to somebody who may be incapacitated but able to hear. Maybe they do have that, not sure, and will find out come an in depth review.
This feature has caused a lot of false positive emergency calls for people skiing/snowboarding, where a fall is often harmless but triggers this countdown due to the speeds involved. [1]
Folks stash their devices away under warm clothing and end up not noticing the countdown or reaching their device in time. Be careful with it if you are involved in high velocity sports.
Thank you and reassuring. That feature alone will sell this by itself for the older generation. Even those who do not travel will appreciate it for that, people like that reassurance that such an option is open to them, even if they don't utilize it. More so the older you get, least what I have noticed.
I'm pretty sure that fall detection only activates when it senses rapid acceleration. Just because you stop moving doesn't mean you'll trigger fall detection.
Everyone knows what you mean, but the technically accurate account is that during normal use or while sitting still on a desk, the device's accelerometer registers an acceleration of approximately 1 g directed towards the center of the earth, and when the phone starts falling, the acceleration drops to approximately 0.
(Then the acceleration will asymptotically approach 1 g again as the device's velocity approaches terminal velocity, but well before then the software will have determined that the device is in free fall.)
It triggered for me after breaking really hard on my bike (not a fall). My hand must have experienced quite the rapid deceleration.
That said, I don’t think it’s a problem in most situations but during winter I might not have reached my watch under several layers of clothing in time to cancel the countdown.
I like how they have thought, don't need a sim to make an emergency call, let alone credit, why not add the ability to call emergency services and use the GPS to pick the right local number.
Equally the safety feature for older people is great initiative, though I do feel for younger users, this may cause some false positives and produce an unhappy ending when suddenly your watch has called the emergency services because you had a rest after some form of exercise.
With that in mind, I'd imagine that during that minute a countdown upon the display starts and audible alert of about to call the emergency services - just to limit false positives taking up emergency services time. Also for legit cases, would offer reassurance to somebody who may be incapacitated but able to hear. Maybe they do have that, not sure, and will find out come an in depth review.