One of the highlights of the Apple Watch Series 4 is its so-called fall detection feature, which could be a lifesaver.
Its purpose is to detect any potential falls and then offer to call emergency services, this is an amazing feature, if of course it has a high accuracy, and a recent test tries to determine exactly that: how much you can really rely on the new Series 4.
The YouTube channel What's Inside has conducted several real-life tests on the new Apple Watch, and the results are surprising.
In mixed performance, the Apple Watch Series 4 failed to detect a fall on an indoor trampoline, regardless of whether the test was conducted on the actual trampoline or on an exercise mat.
However, a typical fall onto a hard surface, such as the floor, triggered the Apple Watch's fall detection feature, prompting the owner to check if they were okay and whether emergency services should be notified.
And now there's the big question: is this a bug or a feature? As it turns out, the Apple Watch may be able to tell the difference between soft and hard surfaces, although it's possible the device simply isn't 100 percent accurate at detecting falls.
Of course, there is room for improvement, and Apple is likely using data sent by customers to make the system more reliable.
Fall detection is turned off by default and must be manually enabled from the Emergency SOS menu in the Watch app on iPhone. However, if your account age is set to 65 or older, Apple automatically turns on fall detection on your watch, as the likelihood of a fall is higher in this case.
It remains to be seen how this feature will evolve over the coming months and we expect further improvements in the next watchOS 5 updates.
