Apple Watch User Guide
- Welcome
- What’s new
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- Apple Watch gestures
- Use double tap to perform common actions
- Set up and pair your Apple Watch with iPhone
- Set up more than one Apple Watch
- Pair Apple Watch with a new iPhone
- The Apple Watch app
- Charge Apple Watch
- Turn on and wake Apple Watch
- Lock or unlock Apple Watch
- Change language and orientation on Apple Watch
- Remove, change, and fasten Apple Watch bands
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- Apps on Apple Watch
- Open apps
- Organize apps
- Get more apps
- Tell time
- Status icons
- Control Center
- Use Focus
- Adjust brightness, text size, sounds, and haptics
- See and respond to notifications
- Change notification settings
- Use the Smart Stack to show timely widgets
- Manage your Apple ID
- Use shortcuts
- See time in daylight
- Set up Handwashing
- Connect Apple Watch to a Wi-Fi network
- Connect to Bluetooth headphones or speakers
- Hand off tasks from Apple Watch
- Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch
- Unlock your iPhone with Apple Watch
- Use Apple Watch without its paired iPhone
- Set up and use cellular service on Apple Watch
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- Get started with Apple Fitness+
- Subscribe to Apple Fitness+
- Find Fitness+ workouts and meditations
- Start a Fitness+ workout or meditation
- Create a Custom Plan in Apple Fitness+
- Work out together using SharePlay
- Change what’s on the screen during a Fitness+ workout or meditation
- Download a Fitness+ workout
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- Alarms
- Blood Oxygen
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Camera Remote
- Contacts
- ECG
- Medications
- Memoji
- News
- Now Playing
- Reminders
- Stocks
- Stopwatch
- Timers
- Tips
- Voice Memos
- Walkie-Talkie
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- About Wallet
- Apple Pay
- Set up Apple Pay
- Make purchases
- Send, receive, and request money with Apple Watch (U.S. only)
- Manage Apple Cash (U.S. only)
- Use Wallet for passes
- Use rewards cards
- Pay with Apple Watch on Mac
- Ride transit
- Use your driver’s license or state ID
- Use digital keys
- Use COVID-19 vaccination cards
- World Clock
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- VoiceOver
- Set up Apple Watch using VoiceOver
- Apple Watch basics with VoiceOver
- Apple Watch Mirroring
- Control nearby devices
- AssistiveTouch
- Use a braille display
- Use a Bluetooth keyboard
- Zoom
- Tell time with haptic feedback
- Adjust text size and other visual settings
- Adjust motor skills settings
- Set up and use RTT
- Accessibility audio settings
- Type to speak
- Use accessibility features with Siri
- The Accessibility Shortcut
- Copyright
Manage Fall Detection on Apple Watch
With Fall Detection enabled, if Apple Watch detects a hard fall, it can help connect you to emergency services and send a message to your emergency contacts. If Apple Watch detects a hard fall and that you have been immobile for about a minute, it will tap your wrist, sound an alarm, and then attempt to call emergency services.
To call emergency services, your Apple Watch or nearby iPhone needs a cellular connection, or needs to have Wi-Fi calling turned on and Wi-Fi coverage available.
If cellular and Wi-Fi coverage are not available, and your iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro or later is near your Apple Watch, Fall Detection will use your iPhone to send the notification using Emergency SOS via satellite, where Emergency SOS via satellite is available. See the Apple Support article Use Emergency SOS via satellite on your iPhone.
![The Fall Detection screen.](https://help.apple.com/assets/6580A106ABAA01F3080E7505/6580A11008DFECBA0F060581/en_US/1ce47781e33d6ab6f1b17307daae7338.png)
If the birthdate you enter when setting up your Apple Watch (or adding it to the Health app on iPhone) indicates that you’re 55 or older, Fall Detection is turned on automatically. If you’re between age 18 and 55, you can turn on Fall Detection manually by doing the following:
Open the Settings app
on your Apple Watch.
Go to SOS > Fall Detection, then turn on Fall Detection.
You can also open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap My Watch, tap Emergency SOS, then turn on Fall Detection.
Note: If you turn off wrist detection, Apple Watch won’t automatically attempt to call emergency services even after it has detected a hard impact fall.
Choose “Always on” to have Fall Detection on at all times, or “Only on during workouts” to have Fall Detection on only when you’ve started a workout.
If you’re between age 18 and 55, and setting up a new Apple Watch with watchOS 8.1 or later, Fall Detection only during workouts is turned on automatically. If you upgrade your existing Apple Watch from an earlier version of watchOS, you must manually turn on the “Only on during workouts” feature.
For more information, see the Apple Support article Use Fall Detection with Apple Watch.
Note: 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.
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