The Apple Watch’s fall detection feature came to the rescue for a man in Georgia, according to a new report from Fox5 Atlanta. Mike Menand was on a hike in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area earlier this year when his two dogs spotted a coyote in the distance, leading Menand to suffer a near-fatal fall.

“They got spooked and knocked me down and dragged me off the trail,” Menand said, referring to what happened when his dogs saw the coyote. This triggered his Apple Watch’s fall detection feature, which kicked in to call emergency services on his behalf.

“I couldn’t even get to the phone because my phone was in my pocket, which I was lying on,” Menand said. He suffered a broken leg in the accident and had a titanium rod put in his leg during surgery.

Menand said that he isn’t sure what would’ve happened if he wasn’t wearing an Apple Watch. “There’s no telling how long I would’ve been laying there,” he recalled. “I realized I couldn’t move, I couldn’t get up. I was in a lot of pain.”

In fact, just a month after Menand suffered his fall, a woman fell while hiking in the same park and did not survive. “When I read that, I thought that could’ve been me,” Menand said. “Because I was by myself, no one around me, no one really knew where I was.”

Fall detection works by intelligently detecting when a sudden fall occurs, automatically calling emergency services if the person doesn’t dismiss the alert within one minute of falling. If the person’s emergency contact information is filled out, that contact will be notified with a text message and a map of the watch’s location at the time of the fall.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s how Apple Watch fall detection works, how to customize, and use it

One of Apple Watch’s potentially life-saving features is fall detection that’s paired with auto emergency SOS calling. Whether you’ve never enabled it or have but later turned it off, follow along for how Apple Watch fall detection works, how to customize, and use it.

Apple Watch fall detection can be used by anyone 18 years of age and up with the option of having it enabled just during workouts or all the time.

The feature is automatically turned on for those 55 years old+. But it’s not only valuable for the elderly, even young users have seen their lives saved by Apple Watch fall detection.

While it can be an important safety feature, Apple notes it “cannot detect all falls” and also that Apple Watch may interpret “high-impact” activity” as a fall and trigger a false alert.

Here’s how Apple describes the feature:

If Apple Watch SE or 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.”

How to turn on Apple Watch fall detection

• Apple Watch fall detection is available for users 18 years old+ on SE and Series 4 and later
• Launch the Apple Watch app on iPhone
• Choose the My Watch tab in the bottom left corner
• Now swipe down and tap Emergency SOS
• To turn on Apple Watch fall detection, tap the toggle next to it
  • You can also choose if you want the feature always on or just activated during workouts
  • If you’re under 55, fall detection – when turned on – will default to “Only on during workouts” – but can be changed to “Always on”
• It can be worth double-checking your Medical ID and emergency contacts data at the bottom of the Emergency SOS page your on, tap “Edit These Contacts in Health” to make changes

You can check your fall history (excludes when you report you didn’t fall) by heading to the Health app on iPhone > Browse tab > Other data > Number of Times Fallen.

Here’s how the process looks to turn on fall detection:

 

 

 

 

And here are more specifics on how emergency SOS calls via fall detection work:

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’ve 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.