How to enable Samsung Galaxy Watch fall detection

Smartwatches like the Google Pixel Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch series offer various safety features, one of which is fall detection. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, 5 Pro, and 6 series all offer fall detection, but this feature isn’t enabled by default. You have to manually turn it on in order for it to work.

What is fall detection on the Galaxy Watch?

A potentially life-saving feature

With fall detection enabled, your Samsung Galaxy watch will sound an alert and send an SOS message to designated emergency contacts if you experience a sudden fall or a drop. Your SOS and current location are sent via phone call to whomever you have linked with the fall detection feature. Then that person can decide whether to call emergency medical professionals or if everything is fine.

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If you have fall detection enabled on the Samsung Galaxy Watch and the smartwatch detects a fall, an SOS alarm will go off, and you have 60 seconds to respond and turn it off. This is helpful because if you take a minor fall and don’t need to alert your loved ones, you can simply abort the SOS call to them directly on the watch face, so you don’t have to worry about every little tumble plaguing your emergency contacts with a panic-inducing SOS call.

How do you turn on fall detection on the Galaxy Watch?

As mentioned, it’s not enabled by default

Here are the steps to enable fall detection on your Galaxy Watch:

1. Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone.
2. Navigate to the Galaxy Watch page and tap Watch settings.
3. Select Safety and Emergency.
4. Tap SOS and hit the toggle for Hard fall detection to the “on” position.
   • This will prompt you to enable permissions.
5. Tap Hard fall detection and choose when you want it to be active.
   • Select Always, During physical activity, or Only during workouts.
6. Then tap back.
7. Tap Emergency Contacts to select which emergency contacts will receive the SOS if and when a fall is detected. You can select an existing contact from your contact list or add a new contact by entering their information.

Now, you’re all set. You can now feel a little less anxious about riding your bike alone, running in the dark before work, or any other activity that might cause you to fall and get injured without having someone with you to help.

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FAQ

Q: Should I use fall detection on the Galaxy Watch?

Fall detection is one of those features that a lot of people glaze over when choosing what type of smartwatch to buy or when looking at how to use their smartwatch. However, safety features like fall detection are the type of thing that you don’t put much stock into until an emergency, in which case, they can truly save your life.

The accelerometer on the watch uses an algorithm to differentiate hard impacts from a fall versus jolting forward if you stop short in a car or have other rapid changes of direction.

What is great about the fall detection safety feature is that you have a built-in assistant to alert your emergency contact if you have fallen. You don’t have to worry about calling to get help when you’re already dealing with an injury.