Apple Watches aren’t just devices for tracking our steps or monitoring our health, but also functional tools that could even save our lives, as we’ll see in a video Apple reportedly released today.
It’s worth remembering that these devices feature interesting features such as accident detection, from the Series 8 model onwards, which will call emergency services directly if it detects a collision, for example.
This is how the Apple Watch Emergency SOS works
Rick Shearman never imagined that an ordinary day swimming in the crystal-clear waters of Byron Bay, Australia, would turn into an experience somewhere between life and death.
While enjoying the ocean, a treacherous current dragged him out to sea, more than 1.5 kilometers from shore. For 20 minutes, he struggled with all his might to get back, but the sea was too strong for him. Exhausted, alone in the middle of the ocean with no hope in sight, he remembered something: he was wearing his Apple Watch.
At that moment, he pressed the emergency button, and within seconds, he was speaking to someone who would try to help him. Rick stayed afloat while he voice-guided the rescue team. A few minutes later, a helicopter rescued him, putting an end to his anguish and saving his life thanks to his watch.
If we hadn’t had the Apple Watch, we probably wouldn’t be telling this story, as it was almost impossible for a human being to escape that situation, and even more difficult for them to be found by chance without knowing someone was there.
Apple told this story in a one-minute video to show everyone that its watches aren’t just calorie counters, but could also be a life-saving investment.
The video doesn’t show whether the user was actually carrying their iPhone, something we highly doubt, so you’d need to have a data plan and an LTE model to be able to make calls, which is also important to keep in mind, as not all versions would have this capability.
In short, if you’re thinking about buying a smartwatch, you can take these factors into account, since you’ll probably never experience a situation like this, but having a traffic accident is more common, and automatically detecting this could save your life, even if you’re unconscious, since emergency services know what happened and receive the information from your Apple Watch, as well as family members, if we have the active option to notify them.
Have you ever had to use any of these features? Do you know a similar story? Leave us a comment if you have, and tell us about it. It’s sure to help others see the potential of these smart devices.
