The proud parents of this newborn baby used an Apple Watch to announce its arrival into the world, by sending its heartbeat out to far-flung family members not at the birth. While it may seem like a story lifted straight from an Apple TV commercial, this isn’t a tale dreamed up by Apple’s marketing team.
A video showing what happened appeared on YouTube over the weekend. Posted by AlphaGlitch, it describes the event as “A really awesome experience that we couldn’t have done without the Apple Watch.”
What exactly happened? One of the most unusual features of the Apple Watch is Digital Touch, which can send a digital representation of a heartbeat to another Apple Watch wearer. It’s activated when two fingers are lightly pressed against the screen.
In the video, the Apple Watch — a Sport model — is placed against a baby’s arm, a contact with an Apple Watch is selected, and the heart rate is sent. The recipient would have felt the heartbeat through Apple’s excellent haptic feedback, and seen an animated heart beating on the screen. According to a report by ABC7, the heartbeat was sent out without telling people it was actually the new baby’s. It was only later on the good news was revealed as a surprise.
Digital Touch is one of our favorite features of the Apple Watch. It’s a unique and surprisingly personal messaging tool that provided you’re contacting someone who will welcome your heartbeat, takes connecting with someone digitally to a new level. It only works between Apple Watch wearers, and the feature can also be used to “tap” another wearer’s wrist, or to send emojis and little hand-drawn pictures.
Recently, Samsung promoted its Gear VR virtual reality headset by setting up a virtual delivery room for a father suddenly separated from his family, just as a new member of it was about to be born.
