Fall Detection is one of the safety features that Apple normalized in the smartwatch industry. While there aren’t a ton of smartwatches that call SoS or emergency services if you suffer a hard fall, there are a few options from the likes of Apple, Galaxy Watch, Garmin, and more. Below we have curated a list of smartwatches with the fall detection feature you can buy now.
What is Fall Detection on Smartwatches?
Fall Detection is a safety feature in smartwatches that can detect when you have a hard fall or fall during an activity. It uses the data from gyroscope and accelerometer sensors that detect your body movement and are programmed to differentiate between a normal and a hard fall.
If these sensors detect a heavy fall and no movements occur after that, it is considered a hard fall. After waiting for a few seconds or minutes, the watch automatically sends an emergency message to your important contacts and emergency services if no response is detected.
Best Smartwatches with Fall Detection
Not many smartwatches are available with fall detection, but we have curated some accurate and useful smartwatches with this feature, given below.
1. Apple Watch (Series 4 and Later)
Apple Watch is the most reliable and trusted health and activity-tracking smartwatch. The fall detection feature has been on the Apple Watch since the Series 4. Before checking outfall detection on Apple Watch, let’s see the Apple Watch models which have fall detection:
- Apple Watch Ultra
- Apple Watch Series 8
- Apple Watch SE (2nd Generation)
- Apple Watch Series 7
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch SE
- Apple Watch Series 5
- Apple Watch Series 4
Apple Watch uses an accelerometer and gyroscope sensor to detect falls. It collects data from these sensors to check for wrist movements and shock impacts with a custom algorithm to detect hard falls.
When you have a hard fall, it enables an emergency alarm and taps vibration on the wrist for you to respond. It waits for the user to respond to the emergency alarm. You can tap close, click on “I’m OK”, or press the crown button. If you don’t respond to the watch within a minute, it will play an emergency sound louder to attract nearby people’s attention.
If nobody comes to action, the watch automatically calls emergency services and plays a recorded emergency message that you have had a hard fall with your location. It also alerts your emergency contacts with an emergency message.
This way, Apple Watch’s fall detection is very helpful for users’ safety, especially for elders. You can read more about fall detection on Apple Watch here.
2. Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and Later
Samsung introduced the fall detection feature in the Galaxy Watch 3 in 2020 through an OTA update. It was the first smartwatch from Samsung that could detect hard falls and call emergency services. However, this feature is more polished and accurate in later versions of the Galaxy Watch.
Let’s take a look at Samsung smartwatches that come with fall detection:
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 4
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 (After OTA Update)
- Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 (After OTA Update)
On the Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Watch Active 2, fall detection has been added via OTA update that could detect falls, but not much accurately. With the Galaxy Watch 4, Samsung has added an advanced accelerometer sensor that detects your body movements.
When it detects any hard fall, the Watch 4 vibrates, rings at maximum volume, and waits for you to respond within 60 seconds.
If you don’t respond to the watch within a minute, it will automatically send emergency SOS messages to the emergency contacts. And it also shows you an option to call emergency services if you are in a condition to call. For this, you should keep the emergency contacts added to the watch from its app and the watch connected to your phone.
Samsung is also improving its health and activity features with improved sensors in newer models. The Galaxy Watch 4 and above models can also be a good choice for safety purposes. You can read more about fall detection on Galaxy Watch 4 here.
3. Garmin Watches (Fenix 5 Plus Series, Forerunner 645, and More)
Garmin is a premium rugged smartwatch brand that also has a fall detection feature in its smartwatches. Fall detection is known as incident detection on Garmin watches. Before talking about its working, let’s see the list of some Garmin watches that have incident detection:
- Garmin Fenix 5 Plus Series and Above
- Garmin Forerunner 45, 55, 245, 255, 645, 645 Music, 745, 945, 955 Series
- Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music and Above
- Garmin Venu 2, 2 Plus, SQ 2
- Garmin Vivomove 3 and Above
- Garmin Vivosmart 5
- Garmin Instinct Series
- Garmin Epix (Gen 2)
- Garmin Enduro Series
- Garmin Quatix Series
Incident detection on Garmin watches is not much similar to the fall detection on Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch. It mostly works if you suddenly stop or fall while doing an activity like running or if you have an accident.
Garmin watches use the accelerometer sensor and GPS to track your location and body movements to check for an incident that happens. It checks for your speed and moving state through GPS, and if you suddenly stop, fall, or trip, the watch triggers the incident detection feature.
When an incident is detected, the Garmin watch automatically sends an emergency message to the contacts you have added for emergency situations. Along with that, it also sends your live location to the emergency contacts. Your watch does not need WiFi, but it should be connected to your phone via Garmin Connect to perform these functions.
Although it is good for safety, it is not as reliable and accurate as the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch’s fall detection. It can trigger more false incident detections that you can cancel within 30 seconds, but it can be annoying sometimes.
4. Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro
The Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro were introduced with the fall detection feature. This feature on Huawei Watch 3 series detects if you have a hard fall and calls the emergency contacts automatically.
If you enable the fall detection feature on Huawei Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro, it will detect when you have hard falls. And, if detected, the watch automatically enables emergency SOS. It sends an SMS containing your location to the emergency contacts and calls the first emergency contact automatically.
If you haven’t set any emergency contacts on these watches, then it will show public emergency numbers which you have to select on the watch to dial the call. It has a useful algorithm for fall detection emergency SOS, but you should keep the emergency contacts added to prevent more false detections.
5. Unaliwear Kanega Watch with Fall Detection
UnaliWear is a start-up that introduced a medical alert smartwatch called Kanega Watch with a built-in fall detection feature. This smartwatch uses AI algorithms and sensors to detect falls and contact emergency services.
When it detects a fall, it automatically connects with emergency services. The interesting thing about this smartwatch is its patented RealFall technology. This watch keeps improving its fall detection accuracy because it has custom AI algorithms that keep improving the accuracy by concluding with previous data of the wearer.
This watch can be very useful for people’s safety – especially for elders because it can detect possible falls that can happen and connect with emergency services to get instant help. It is an all-in-one smartwatch that does not need to connect to any smartphone to perform all functions.
Wrapping Up
Several smartwatches from different brands offer fall detection, but the Apple Watch is considered the most reliable and best safety smartwatch after checking all the factors.
The Galaxy Watch competes well with the Apple Watch in terms of fall detection, whereas Garmin’s incident detection is prone to false detections. At last, UnaliWear’s Kanega Watch is an interesting medical alert smartwatch that keeps improving its fall detection based on every wearer’s movements over time.
Well, that’s a wrap-up for this article. I hope you got some help choosing the best safety smartwatch with fall detection for your elders. Let us know which smartwatch you liked the most in the comments below, and stay tuned with WearablesToUse for more informative articles!
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