Google is adding fall detection to the Pixel Watch

When Google announced the Pixel Watch last year, a big feature that was listed as coming soon was fall detection and today Google have announced it’s rolling out from today. 

Fall detection has been a major hole in the featureset of the Pixel Watch, with rivals including the Samsung Galaxy Watch and Apple Watch including the feature. The update will require you to opt in once it arrives in the March update, with the setting found in Watch Preferences > Safety and Emergency > scroll until you see Fal Detection.

The fall detection feature will work after the watch sensors detect a fall and then don’t detect movement ‘for about 30 seconds’. Then, the watch will vibrate, sound an alarm and display an on-screen notification to check on you. If you’re able to and don’t need help, you can ‘I’m OK’ or tap ‘I fell & need help’ to be connected to emergency services. 

If you don’t respond, the alarm will continue for about a minute, getting louder every few seconds, after which the watch will automatically call emergency services and play an automated message. If you’re able to, you can also speak to the emergency operator as well. 

Google says the Pixel Watch can tell the difference between exercise like skiing, burpees, jumping and swimming and an actual fall thanks to their algorithms and ‘rigorous testing’, training the watch with a variety of human and simulated fall data. 

At this stage the update for Pixel Watch isn’t available to download for me, but it should be rolling out soon. If you want to take advantage of the feature when it arrives, make sure you enable it once the update is installed.