Does Fenix 6 have fall detection?

All Fenix 6 series watches have the incident detection feature. This feature can be toggled on or off at any point, from the Garmin connect app and from the watch menu. The incident detection feature can call up to 3 pre-defined emergency contacts, whenever it detects an incident. The feature is useful for detecting fall and incidents when you are outdoor.

Does Fenix 6 watches have a better fall detection than Apple watches? This is more like a theoretical question. But, we do know that Apple watches have one of the best fall detection rates. Apple watches have saved lives in the past, and these watches do extremely well in detecting fall and intimating emergency contacts of the person. Fenix 6’s incident detection feature works only in specific cases. Incident detection will only work when you are in outdoor walk, outdoor run or bike activities. For any other activity, incident detection will not trigger.

Also, the fall detection feature on Apple watches with LTE or Cellular support will make an emergency call to the emergency services. This emergency call seeks immediate help for a non-responsive person. Since Garmin Fenix 6 watches do not have any LTE or cellular support, it is unable to make an emergency call. Yes, it shares your coordinates with the emergency contacts. But for now, that is the best shot it can extend for you in terms of detecting incident detection.

Incident detection is not useful without the ability to make emergency calls. That is our opinion. Sending message to designated emergency contacts its good; but, there may be situations wherein the designated contact may not be able to check messages for an extended period of time.

If the fall detection feature is a MUST-HAVE, go for an Apple Watch without any second thoughts. No watch comes close to an Apple Watch for the fall detection feature and its performance that has been put to test many times in the past few years.

How do you get incident detection to work on a Fenix 6 series watch?

As stated above, there are a few pre-requisites to make the incident detection feature work on Fenix 6 series watches.

Make sure that you have a good working GPS connection
You will need to setup emergency contacts that can be intimated about a fall or crash by the Fenix watch.
Up to 3 emergency contacts can be defined.
The contacts defined by you as emergency contacts will get a message that states something like:- ‘Anne has added you as an emergency contact. In the event of an incident or a request for assistance, you will be notified. Contact this person to be removed.’ . Please do educate your emergency contacts about these acknowledgement message.
If a fall or crash is detected by the watch, Garmin Fenix 6 will send an SMS and/or email (emails are sent if email accounts are added for the emergency contacts) to the three designated emergency contacts. If you have defined less than three contacts for taking emergency responses, the watch will send message and email to who so ever is designated as emergency contacts.
When a fall is detected, the Fenix 6 series watch will generate an emergency message on your watch screen and wait for 30 seconds for user response. A user has 30 seconds to cancel the message after fall detection. If it fails to elicit a response from the wearer, it will use the paired phone to send in the message. The paired phone needs to have a good Internet connection or a cellular connection to send these assistance messages.
The emergency help message is sent with your name and your GPS location to the emergency contacts.
Do remember, that your Fenix smart watch and the paired smart phone needs to have adequate battery charge. We always advise charging your phone and watch before initiating an outdoor run or bike run.
The watch needs to be connected to the smart phone over a good Bluetooth connection.
Another significant point you will like to know is that fenix 6 series watches will not call 911 directly. Unlike the Apple watch, the fenix software will instead send assistance notifications to your emergency contacts.
The fenix watch will send a series of messages. The first one will talk about your requiring assistance. The series of next messages would share your location on Google Maps and then the GPS co-ordinates. All these messages may be sent from different phone numbers. So, it may be wise to educate your emergency contacts that the assistance messages may be sent from different phone numbers.
You can choose to end assistance on the Garmin fenix 6 watch, and you could even send a message to emergency contacts and let them know that you are Ok.

How to enable Incident detection on fenix 6 series watches using Garmin connect?

You can enable incident detection feature by using the Garmin connect app on the phone that is paired with the Garmin fenix 6 smart watch. To enable the incident detection watch on the Garmin connect app, please follow the instructions below:

Select the three dots to being up the MENU.
Select ‘Safety & Tracking’ from the available options
From the open menu, choose incident detection.
Accept the terms and conditions
Enter your name, city location and add up to 3 emergency contacts with their phone numbers and email addresses.

When you add an emergency contact, you cannot edit or delete these at a later point of time. But, you can deactivate these emergency contacts so that they do not receive any assistance notifications.

Enable incident detection tracking on fenix 6 series watches.

Once incident detection has been enabled on the Garmin connect app, you will need to use the safety and tracking menu on the fenix 6 smart watch to enable incident detection for specific activities. You can choose to enable incident detection for one or all of the below mentioned activities on the Garmin fenix 6 series watches.

Run
Trail Run
Bike
Walk
Hike

We suggest that you must enable incident detection for all the aforesaid activities on your fenix 6 smart watch.

Conclusion:

Incident detection is a useful feature. It will trigger automated action to seek assistance for you. Enabling incident detection is a simple process on the fenix 6 series watches, and you must use this advanced feature to ensure your safety whenever you are participating in running, biking or hiking activities.

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Helen Kurt

Helen Kurt is a geeky nerd who loves to cover the wearables space. She has over 5 years of experience in the smartwatch domain. You can reach her on email at [email protected]