This is one seemingly tiny, new feature of the device. He might not have bought the device for this feature, or even have known that it was there. Or rather, the people reading might have not bought the device for this feature, or even have known that it was there. I think this is what makes the story popular enough to be going around.

FWIW, unless you are over 60 it's not enabled by default. Presumably this is to minimize false alarms, but if you want this feature enabled, you should make certain it's enabled.

Here's how: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

Thank you for mentioning! I was under the impression that I had it enabled, but your comment got me to check.

Simply: If it's important to you, CHECK IT.

Those older than 65 should have it enabled, but should check. (I wasn't sure about the exact age so made a conservative/ lazy guess)

The correct answer (per the docs) is "over 65".

Right, I missed the "unless" in my replacement.

Additionally, some of us who have this watch and this feature enabled want to share stories that verify the feature works for some people ergo could work if something happens to us (and this also helps us to rationalize our purchase!)

> He might not have bought the device for this feature

The article says that it was a consideration when he bought it.

The feature has to be turned on and configured. The cycling group I am in has had dozens of people realize they were accidentally forgoing this feature while wearing the watch, so the impact of this article is potentially huge.

Does Apple marketing guarantee that it will work? I bought watches for my parents, partly because of the feature, but I never had the impression that it was guaranteed to correctly detect all (or even most) life threatening situations

> I never had the impression that it was guaranteed to correctly detect all (or even most) life threatening situations

Apple Watch detects falls, not unconsciousness. It doesn't detect heart attacks either.

> Apple Watch cannot detect all falls. The more physically active you are, the more likely you are to trigger fall detection due to high impact activity that can appear to be a fall. [0]

[0] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

It does detect if you aren't moving after a fall event, which can be a reasonable proxy for unconsciousness.

I was not aware of this feature in Apple watches. I probably still won't buy one, but it's nice to know it exists and it's a feature I'll look for in other similar devices.