Watch 5 Fall Detection sensitivity

So I was driving home today and had to bring the car to a really hard stop to avoid a seriously big accident... I think the seat belt tensioners came on, the ABS was hammering away under the brake pedal and stuff was flying off the back seat… and once I got driving again, my watch 5 told me it had detected a fall!


I just got the Watch a couple of days ago (replacing the very first version of the Watch I got as a gift) so this fall detection business is new to me, but I just wondered if this sort of sensitivity is normal. I was still sort of recovering from the near accident, and was definitely distracted - as I was driving away - by the message on the Watch…



Apple Watch Series 5, watchOS 6

Posted on Jan 1, 2020 3:01 PM

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Posted on Jan 1, 2020 3:12 PM

Fall detection is determined by the accelerometer in the Watch. I've slapped my hand down hard on the counter before and it registered it as a fall. You have time to turn off the emergency SOS and tell the Watch you didn't fall. I don't mind so much turning that off, especially after falling off a stepladder and it activated. While it is possible to get a false reading, I would rather have that then it be too difficult for it to read a fall and I just lay there waiting.

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Jan 1, 2020 3:12 PM in response to Sun Dogs

Fall detection is determined by the accelerometer in the Watch. I've slapped my hand down hard on the counter before and it registered it as a fall. You have time to turn off the emergency SOS and tell the Watch you didn't fall. I don't mind so much turning that off, especially after falling off a stepladder and it activated. While it is possible to get a false reading, I would rather have that then it be too difficult for it to read a fall and I just lay there waiting.

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Watch 5 Fall Detection sensitivity

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