Does anyone have any experience of an Apple Watch as a falls watch?.

[Ihad2Strokes]

Hi

I have found a brilliant watch by 'Your Stride' which if I had found them in January (when I had my Stroke) I would have bought one immediately. It is basically a plain watch that step counts but it's main function is to be a falls alarm, a real human speaks to you if it senses you have had a fall and will contact your designated person or emergency services for you and will chat to you (I think until Help arrives, but I'm not sure). It's £59.99 to buy and £20 per month for the monitoring, which seems completely reasonable to me.

However, it doesn't do a lot of the things an Apple Watch would do and the Apple Watch is smaller and less utilitarian. (obviously more expensive but since the Stroke using my phone for the time and various other things is more difficult than it was before, so I was looking at getting some kind of watch anyway)

The information about the Apple Watch says it does sense falls and if you don't press the button within a given time it will contact the emergency services.

I was just wondering if anyone had any actual experience of this working?

I'd rather put the money towards an Apple Watch that I actually want, then a very utilitarian falls watch, but only if it's going to do this one thing I absolutely need which is contact the emergency services should I have a fall.

One other consideration is that the Your Stride watch is not waterproof and I would need to remove it to have a shower whereas the Apple Watch is waterproof. I am most surprised that Your Stride watch isn't waterproof, but it isn't, so there you go.

Any experience of the apple watch working effectively as a falls watch or other comments, much appreciated.

My daughter rides horses and wears an Apple Watch - she’s also got a separate app specifically for horse riding, but the built in fall detection is pretty sensitive on the watch - it will sometimes go off when she’s jumping or dismounts - you can press a button on the watch to stop it contacting the emergency services.

She did have a nasty fall while out hacking a few weeks ago and it worked perfectly - although she was conscious so could stop it contacting the emergency services and call me instead

Edited to add - another bonus for the watch is that she could call me through the watch, which was much easier than rather than trying to fish her phone out of her pocket

My Apple watch definitely picks up falls.

So far I have never needed it to contact the Emergency services, so I haven’t tested that element. I just tell it I am OK.

It is quite sensitive and also picks up other unusual movements e.g. hammering on the base of a flower pot, tenderising meat and even an emergency stop in the car on one occasion.

I love it, it makes me feel slightly more secure when walking in remote areas and I wouldn’t be without it now.

I fell over the other day (I have always had weak ankles and often go over on them), I went down hard and my iwatch watch started making a noise and vibrating. When I looked at it, it said ‘I can see you’ve had a hard fall, do you want me to contact the emergency services’. I pressed no, but am presuming it would have rung them had I know cancelled the request.

Thank you for your reply!!

Is DD okay after her fall??

is the separate app she has for horse riding a different type of falls app or something completely unrelated?

I am most definitely not going to be doing anything like jumping horses or dismounting them. Not any more sadly. So I don't think I'm that likely to set it off accidentally and as you say, even if you do, it's easy enough to turn off.

yes, be able to call from the Apple Watch is definitely a bonus, you can't do that with the Stride watch, you can only reply to their monitoring system (and I guess you can press the button to contact them if you need to)

Thank you for your reply too!

These are exactly the sort of things I need to hear.

It sounds like it's possible some of my actions may set it off, but I'm fine with that, it sounds easy enough to turn it off. I was more worried it wouldn't be sensitive enough! But it sounds like it would be.

Do you know which Watch you have?

I was just looking at the one that Apple sell currently, which is the SEsomething or other ( they also sell another one currently, but there's no way I'm spending that much on a watch!! no doubt it offers lots of brilliant things, but I probably don't need and couldn't use 98 percent of them!!

She’s fine thanks. Bit sore but no harm done.

The app she has for horse riding is Equilab, it’s completely unrelated but has fall detection and location finding, as well as a whole load of other stuff that she uses (records hacks and stuff like that) but the fall detection in the Apple Watch seems pretty good, and I can find her through Find My Friends on our phones if I need to. She could probably bin off Equilab but likes the other features - I don’t think the fall detection is quite as sensitive as the built in one on the Apple Watch

Thank you too.

I hope you didn't hurt yourself too much and were able to carry on your walk!!

I've always had week ankles two & it has caused me a number of falls, unfortunately as I'm getting older, the sprain strainss etc are beginning to show with the wear and tear. Now with the numbness from the stroke, I'm just not that confident and I'm getting a lot of hip pain. One woman I was in hospital with had had her hip go just walking across her living room and obviously she fell and was there three days before the gardener spotted her through the French doors. I live alone (and don't have a gardener.🤣🤣) so got load knows how many days I could be lying therefore before anybody noticed or did anything about it and that's indoors, not where I normally go walking!!

Sorry if my messages have lots of mistakes, I'm using voice to message and has some funny ideas!!

I fell off my bike and was knocked out and my phone had dialled 999 by the time I came round. There was a call handler talking to me through my watch. Not sure what use it would have been if I’d stayed unconscious but I guess for a fall it would be useful.

Also if someone is stuck in the floor I assume they could ask Siri to call someone in your contacts?

Mine has never gone off at any other time btw and I do a lot of mountain biking and hurtling around the place at speed/drops. I have an SE model.

Good to hear that she's fine (well a bit sore, but no major damage!!). I miss riding, but other things had stopped me before the Stroke, but I was hoping to start again in the future, but given my age balance and everything else, it's not realistically going to happen. So I'm glad she's enjoying it while she's young and able to.!!!

Equilab sounds like a great app for all the other stuff!!

😊

I love my Apple Watch. Fortunately haven’t needed it for any emergencies yet but it’s reassuring to know it’s there just in case. Especially as I’m rather accident prone.

My mum has a Your Stride watch as she’s on her own during the day and has Parkinson’s so her mobility isn’t great. They were really helpful and adjusted it so her tremors don’t set it off. Haven’t had any calls so far but it makes me and my sibling feel much better knowing she can press a button and get help.

The battery life of the Your Stride Watch is much better than the Apple one if that’s a consideration.

So are you saying the falls alarm didn't work on your watch, but it did work on your phone??

at the moment, I am continuing to take my phone everywhere with me outside, but one of my concerns is that it would smash if I fell on it and landed on a rock or something and with every bad thing being touchscreen if the screen smashed it would be as good as useless. I don't use Siri and she doesn't really understand my accent.

Mine is the apple-watch-series-9-gps

I thought long and hard before spending that much, but decided it was worth it for the falls protection and the ECG functions alone. I have a heart condition and both make me feel more secure.

Speak to your local Riding for the Disabled and see if they can help get you back in the saddle.

Our local one does specific sessions for people who have had strokes.

Hi

thanks for your message. It's very helpful.

I haven't actually seen a Your Stride watch in person, how utilitarian, bulky, ugly are they?

I'm so torn because although I've had a stroke I'm mid 50s, and not really yet ready to embrace, the elderly vibe anymore than I have to! Although if I had something like Parkinson's, I would.

Which model Apple Watch do you have?

@Soaringskylark @SamDeanCas

Do you know which model Apple phone your daughter has Skyla? Or which you have Sam.??

That's something I hadn't thought of, and something I will keep in mind in the future.

At the moment I'm having enough difficulty getting where I absolutely need to be, without finding some way of getting to a Riding stable other than by taxi, which I really can't afford as obviously I'm not working at the moment.

But thanks for the thought, and I will keep it in mind in the future, I'm hoping that at some stage I will be able to drive even if it means getting an adapted car 💁🏻‍♀️

@Ihad2Strokes

Maybe a crossed post but as detailed above;

Mine is the apple-watch-series-9-gps

I thought long and hard before spending that much, but decided it was worth it for the falls protection and the ECG functions alone. I have a heart condition and both make me feel more secure.

@Ihad2Strokes I don’t think the Your Stride watch is any more bulky than the Apple Watch. Mum is tiny and it doesn’t look too out of place on her wrist. She has changed the strap on hers as she didn’t like the one it came with and now has a leopard print one! I don’t think you can change the face on it though which you can with Apple.

Mine is a series 10. I probably don’t use all the functions on it properly but wouldn’t be without it.

Yes, sorry I missed that post

I wonder if the falls alarm is the same in the current model?

I can see why you would pay for one with the ECG. So far. (🙄🙄) my heart isn't the issue (just 1 million other things!!🙇🏻‍♀️)

I had just looked at the ones that Apple are currently stocking, so I didn't get too confused about which one to buy and have always felt more confident buying directly from them, but I've just had a look and John Lewis (& other places) are stocking the series 9...

oh interesting to know you can change the strap, though I'm not sassy enough to go for leopard print 🤣. Good to know it doesn't look too huge on her wrist, even though she's tiny..

🤗

Sorry, I meant to write watch not phone. It was my watch that had called 999, it worked perfectly as a falls alarm. I’d recommend it.

@Ihad2Strokes

I bought my Series 9 in May 2024 from John Lewis.

Old habits die hard and things have probably changed, but I buy all my Apple products from them and in the past have had good service when things went wrong. They even replaced an 18 month old Ipad once.

We got my MIL an Apple Watch last year after a couple of falls and it’s so good. We are happier and she is happier. She’s had a couple of close calls and been able to contact us using the watch. Highly recommend!

Ah right! Good to know!

even more so when you have apples current model! Though still contemplating getting the series 9 from John Lewis or somewhere

Oh brilliant that's good to know, thank you!!

I've had some family members who have had a dreadful time with them in the past few years despite having always bought furniture and white goods from them, so it's put me off, but good to know you've had better luck with buying Apple products from them!!