Google Pixel Watch can connect you to emergency services if you need help. If you've unlocked your watch at least once since startup, you can call an emergency contact without the need to unlock it.1 With Google Pixel Watch 2 and Pixel Watch 3, every safety feature, which includes Safety Check7, is available with or without your phone nearby.
On the other hand, your Google Pixel Watch Wi-Fi relies on your phone to call emergency services. This feature requires your phone to be close enough and connected through Bluetooth. Your watch can’t be used to speak with emergency services without that Bluetooth connection to your phone.
Your Google Pixel Watch LTE doesn’t need a phone to call emergency services. However, it needs an active LTE connection on your watch to call emergency services. If you have a Pixel Watch 2 LTE with Fitbit Premium, you can use Safety Signal.
Safety Signal5 allows you to use safety features without your phone nearby. An active Fitbit Premium Subscription enables phone-free connectivity through Safety Signal. For more information, visit Use Safety Signal on Google Pixel Watch.
Certain regions require an active LTE carrier or Safety Signal to support emergency calls placed from a Pixel Watch.
Turn on and use safety features on Pixel Watch
Learn how to turn on and use these different safety features:
|
Safety Feature |
On Pixel Watch |
On Pixel Watch 2 |
On Pixel Watch 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car Crash Detection | — | ✓ | ✓ |
|
✓ |
✓ |
✓ | |
|
✓ |
✓ |
✓ | |
|
— |
✓ |
✓ | |
|
— |
✓ |
✓ | |
| Loss of Pulse Detection | — | — | ✓ |
|
✓ (Wear OS 4 or newer) |
✓ |
✓ | |
|
✓ (Wear OS 4 or newer) |
✓ |
✓ | |
|
✓ (Wear OS 4 or newer) |
✓ |
✓ |
Car Crash Detection
Car Crash Detection can track if you’ve been in a severe car crash. Call emergency services automatically, like 911 in the US, notify emergency contacts, and share your location.
How Car Crash Detection works
Car Crash Detection on your Pixel Watch uses information like your phone’s location and motion sensors. If your phone detects a car crash, it can call emergency services for you. This call uses Android’s Emergency Location Service (ELS) and may send info about where you are and what happened.
You can also use Emergency Sharing with Car Crash Detection, which will share your real-time location with your emergency contacts in situations where a crash is detected and there isn’t any response from you.
Important:
- Both Car Crash Detection and ELS can be used independently.
- If turned on, ELS will work for every emergency call (if available in an area) and sends your location information to emergency services.
- When turned on, Car Crash Detection uses ELS whenever it places a call automatically during emergency situations.
- Car Crash Detection will continue to function even if ELS is turned off.
When a crash is detected, Safety on your watch will check in and a full-screen 60-second countdown will take over. Your watch will vibrate and an alarm will sound (this alarm will bypass Do Not Disturb and Bedtime mode). To cancel the countdown, tap I’m OK.
To immediately start a call to emergency services, tap Call 911 (or any other default emergency services number, which varies by country). The call automatically defaults to the official government emergency services area in the country or region.
Important:
- If a potential crash is detected and there's no response from you, your watch places a call to emergency services on your behalf. During the call, it plays an audio message to inform emergency responders of the potential crash, that you were unresponsive, and provides your location information.
- If you wish to talk to emergency services personally and stop the automated message, tap Call 911 (or any other default number for emergency services of the country or region you're located).
- Your watch may not be able to detect every crash.
- High-impact activities could also trigger Car Crash Detection.
- In some cases, your Pixel Watch might not be able to call emergency services. For example, your phone might be connected to a weak mobile network.
- Car Crash Detection won't work in airplane mode, or when Battery Saver is on.
Tap Car Crash Detection.Emergency SOS
Emergency SOS can quickly connect you with help in an emergency. To use Emergency SOS, press the crown 5 times, then touch and hold the screen for 3 seconds to call emergency services. If you release your hold on the screen before 3 seconds, it goes back to the first screen and the call won’t be placed.
Tip: You can set up Emergency SOS to automatically call emergency services after a 5-second countdown instead of having to touch and hold the screen.
You can also set Emergency SOS to call a specified emergency contact instead of emergency services in Add Emergency contacts.
Important:
-
Google Pixel Watch Wi-Fi may not be able to call all emergency numbers in all countries. It can only place a call if your phone is nearby and paired with your watch.
-
Google Pixel Watch LTE may not be able to call emergency numbers in all countries without an active LTE connection or Safety Signal.
With Emergency Location Service turned on, your phone shares your location with regional emergency responders if they use ELS. For Google Pixel Watch LTE, ELS is on by default. To turn ELS on for your watch:
-
Press the crown and tap Safety
Emergency Location Service
-
Turn on Use emergency location service.
Fall Detection
Fall Detection is available in Pixel-supported countries. If you have Fall Detection turned on and travel to an unsupported region, Fall Detection will be temporarily unavailable.
When a hard fall is detected, your Pixel Watch waits about 30 seconds, then vibrates, rings loudly, and asks if you want to call emergency services2 . If you don't respond, your watch vibrates and alarms, then calls emergency services after 60 seconds with an automated voice message.
If you have granted permission to share your location, your Pixel Watch will share your location with emergency services.
How Fall Detection helps emergency services get to you
When a hard fall is detected and you don't respond to the alert after 60 seconds, Pixel Watch can share your location in an automated voice message. This message is played to emergency services during the call.
If you enabled Fall Detection and didn't grant Personal Safety "while in use" location permission, update Fall Detection to share your location with emergency services:
- On Google Pixel Watch, press the crown.
- Tap Play Store
- Update Personal Safety.
1 Google Pixel Watch operates using radio signals, which cannot guarantee connection in all conditions. Never rely solely on any wireless device for emergency communications.
2 Fall Detection works by using motion sensors on your Pixel Watch. Keep in mind, high-impact activities may trigger fall detection. Fall detection can’t detect all falls.
3 Emergency SOS: Emergency SOS requires location enabled and 4G LTE service or an internet connection. Emergency SOS is dependent upon network connectivity and other factors and may not be reliable for emergency communications or available in all countries or languages. Go to g.co/pixelwatch/personalsafety for more details.
4 Fall Detection: Fall Detection is not available in all countries and depends on network connectivity and other factors. Your watch may not be reliable for emergency communications. Fall Detection may not detect all falls. To call emergency services on a Google Pixel Watch without 4G LTE, your paired phone must be nearby. Users must grant location permission for Fall Detection to share location externally. Data rates may apply. Go to g.co/pixelwatch/personalsafety for more details.
5 Safety Signal: Not available on Pixel Watch 2 or 3 (Wi-Fi) or in all countries. Safety Signal requires location enabled and, in cases of emergency, provides Fitbit Premium subscribers without a 4G LTE watch line with access to a 4G LTE network for use of safety features only. When your watch is not connected to your phone, Safety Signal does not support Wi-Fi calling.
6 Emergency Sharing: Data rates may apply. Emergency Sharing requires location enabled and 4G LTE service or an internet connection. Emergency Sharing is dependent upon network connectivity and other factors and may not be reliable for emergency communications or available in all countries or languages. Go to g.co/pixelwatch/personalsafety for more details.
7 Safety Check: Data rates may apply. Safety Check requires location enabled and 4G LTE service or an internet connection. Safety Check is dependent upon network connectivity and other factors and may not be reliable for emergency communications or available in all countries or languages. Go to g.co/pixelwatch/personalsafety for more details.
8 When multi-device location sharing is turned on for your device, we will use that device’s location as a backup in the case you start an Emergency Share on another device, but that device can no longer share its location.
Emergency SOS requires location enabled and 4G LTE service or an internet connection. Fall detection and Emergency SOS are dependent upon network connectivity and other factors and may not be reliable for emergency communications and available in all areas or languages. Fall detection may not detect all falls. Auto-dialling to emergency services is not available in all countries. Go to g.co/pixelwatch/personalsafety for more details.