How to test fall detection
You should never have to take our word for it. There's a built-in drill that lets you watch fall detection work on your own phone, safely, in about a minute.
The test alerts only your own phone
Your emergency contacts are never notified by the drill — no push, no email, no text. Nobody will think something has happened to you. You can run it as often as you like.
Step by step
Settings → Protection → Safety & location → Test my safety net → Test fall detection
We know that's buried. We're changing the app so this test is offered to you the moment you switch fall detection on.
A bed, a sofa, or a cushion on the floor. Please don't test onto a hard floor — you'd risk your phone for no extra benefit, because the drill is already tuned to pick up a gentle drop.
For the length of the test only, the app turns the sensitivity right up so a gentle drop is enough to trigger it. Drop it from roughly waist height onto the soft surface, let go properly rather than placing it down, and leave it there for a few seconds — stillness after the impact is part of what the detector is looking for.
Your phone should sound the alert and ask if you're okay, exactly as it would in a real fall — and then wait for you. That prompt is the feature. Tap "I'm OK" to end the drill.
Why you can't test it by just dropping your phone
Outside the drill, fall detection deliberately ignores a dropped phone. A phone that slips out of your hand doesn't rotate and settle the way a falling person does, and if we fired on every dropped phone your family would get false alarms every time it slid off the sofa.
So dropping your phone with the drill closed will correctly do nothing — and that's not a fault you've found. It's the reason the drill exists. More on how fall detection decides.
If the drill runs and nothing happens
That one matters, and we'd genuinely like to know. Worth checking first:
- You dropped it rather than placing it down — a slow hand-lowered phone has no impact to detect.
- You let it come to rest for a few seconds instead of picking it straight back up.
- Fall detection is switched on, and you're on a plan that includes it.
- You're on an iPhone — Android fall detection is coming soon, not available yet.
If it still doesn't fire after a couple of honest attempts, please email support@imalive.co and tell us your phone model. A drill that doesn't fire on a real handset is something we want to chase down — phones vary, and that's exactly the kind of report that improves it for everyone.
What a passed test does and doesn't prove
A successful drill proves the important thing: the sensors, the detector, the alarm and the prompt all work on your phone. It doesn't promise every real fall will be caught — fall detection is best-effort and not a medical device, and a real fall can happen in ways no detector recognises. It alerts your emergency contacts, not emergency services. Treat it as one layer of your safety net alongside your daily check-in, not a replacement for calling for help.