Your next Samsung Galaxy Watch could "dramatically reduce" your chances of getting injured thanks to this smart feature

New research suggests smartwatches could predict fainting episodes
This would give you time to minimize the danger of a fall.
The research was commissioned by Samsung.

Most of the time, fainting spells come out of nowhere, leaving a split second for someone to support you before you start hurtling toward the ground. But what if your smartwatch could alert you to the likelihood that a faint is imminent before it actually happens? It seems like something out of science fiction, but one day it could become a reality.

That’s the idea behind a clinical research paper commissioned by Samsung, which concludes that it might be possible for a wearable device to warn you that you’re at risk of fainting minutes before it happens. That would potentially give you time to get to a more comfortable place, like a couch, so that the sudden loss of consciousness doesn’t cause you to crash onto the hard floor.

In the study, researchers at Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital in South Korea said Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 could predict vasovagal syncope (a condition that can cause fainting) up to five minutes before it occurs.

not here yet

A person monitoring their heart rate on a Samsung Galaxy Watch.

(Image credit: Samsung)

Vasovagal syncope is a common condition. In fact, “up to 40% of people experience vasovagal syncope during their lifetime, and one-third experience recurrent episodes,” said Professor Junhwan Cho of the Department of Cardiology at Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital. If a smartwatch can help you minimize the danger of a fall resulting from this condition, it could be a huge benefit for many people.

In fact, as Professor Cho noted, “an early warning could give patients advance time to get into a safe position or call for help, which would dramatically reduce the incidence of secondary injuries.”

While the results of this study are promising, it’s worth noting that this weak prediction feature is not yet available on any of Samsung’s best smartwatches. Instead, it was more of a proof of concept of the idea that a wearable device can predict a fainting episode in advance.

But with the PPG sensor already built into many of Samsung’s smartwatches, it’s not hard to imagine a feature like this appearing in a future version of the company’s devices. Many of the best smartwatches on the market, including the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Garmin Fenix 8, also feature PPG sensors, meaning this feature could theoretically emerge on some other devices in the future.

That said, more clinical testing and regulatory approval will be needed before any of that becomes a reality. However, when (or if) you do, it could save you from a nasty fall with plenty of time to spare.