14 DAY TRIAL // One of the highlights of the Apple Watch Series 4 is the so-called Fall Detection feature, which on paper, could be a life-saving thing.
Its purpose is to detect a potential fall and then offer to call emergency services for you. Theoretically, this is quite an amazing feature if it sports high accuracy, and a test performed recently tries to determine exactly just that: how much you can actually rely on the new Series 4.
The What’s Inside? YouTube channel has conducted several real-life tests on the new Apple Watch and the results are surprising.
With mixed performance, the Apple Watch Series 4 failed to detect a fall on an indoor trampoline, no matter if the test was conducted on the actual trampoline, on a foam pit, or on a gymnastic mat.
However, a typical fall on a hard surface, like the floor, triggered the Apple Watch Fall Detection feature, asking the owner whether they are OK and should the emergency services be alerted.
Bug or feature?
And now there’s the key question: is this a bug or a feature? By the looks of things, the Apple Watch may be able to make a difference between soft and hard surfaces, though at the same time, the device may simply not be 100 percent accurate at detecting falls.
Certainly, there’s room for improvements, and Apple probably uses data sent by customers in order to make the system more reliable.
Fall Detection comes off by default, and it needs to be manually enabled from the Emergency SOS menu in the Watch app on an iPhone. On the other hand, if your account age is set to 65 or higher, Apple automatically enables Fall Detection on your watch, as the likelihood of a fall in this case is higher.
It remains to be seen how this feature evolves in the coming months, and expect further improvements in the next watchOS 5 updates.
