Mobile medical alert devices are great in that they enable you to be independent even if you may require emergency help at any given time, but we can all agree that a help button pendant isn’t always an ideal solution. The Medical Guardian MGMove Smartwatch (starting at $199.95 upfront, then $39.95 per month) puts you in contact with an emergency response agent with the touch of a button. This stylish watch also tracks your steps, provides medicine and appointments reminders, and integrates with a caregiver app that lets members of your Support Circle (caregivers, family members, and friends) track your activities and locate you. Its quick response times and robust feature set earn it our Editors’ Choice award for mobile medical alert devices.
Understated Design
With its thin glossy black bezel, full-color touch-enabled watch face, and flexible black wrist band, the MGMove looks sleek and minimalist. The round watch face is 1.25 inches in diameter and has an IP67 water-resistance rating, so you can wear it out in the rain and when you shower but shouldn’t submerge it. The 0.87-inch-wide wristband uses a thermoplastic polyurethane plastic material that is both lightweight and comfortable.
Under the hood are cellular (AT&T), GPS, and Wi-Fi radios, as well as a rechargeable battery that Medical Guardian says should last for up to 24 hours between charges. When the battery starts to run low, the watch audibly alerts you that it’s time to recharge. In the box, you get a magnetic charging cradle, various instruction guides, a USB cable, and a USB power adapter.
A red SOS button sits on the left side of the watch and a sleep/wake button is on the right. Press and hold the SOS button for five seconds to initiate a call to a 24/7 emergency response center and speak with a live agent. If you press the button by mistake, you can cancel the call within a five-second window. Once you reach an agent, you can speak with them via the automatic two-way talk system built into the watch.
MGMove Subscription and Software
The MGMove requires a $39.95 monthly subscription (or $36.62 per month if you pay annually) to get all the monitoring and cellular services. For an additional $5 per month, the Step Up Feature unlocks Support Circle reminders and messaging apps. Fall detection isn’t an option at any tier.
For comparison, the Kanega Watch, which includes a fall detection feature, requires a one-time setup fee of $249.99 and a quarterly monitoring subscription goes for $69.95 per month (or if you pay annually, the setup fee is $149.99 and the service plan costs $59.95 per month). The Well Medical Alert Plus system costs $199.95 upfront for both the speaker and watch components, and then you pay $44.95 per month; aside from the features the smart speaker enables, the system also tracks your heart rate.
In terms of software, press the sleep/wake button to access the MGMove’s on-screen apps. When you first activate the screen, you see a watch face with a colored dot (green, yellow, or red) that indicates your cellular signal strength (excellent, good, or poor). Tap the watch face to launch one of two app screens. The first shows four colorful icons: weather, step counter, test, and SOS. Tap on the weather icon to see the current temperature and conditions, as well as the high and low temperatures for the day. Press the step counter icon to see your daily step count; here, you can also view a chart that shows your step count for each day of the week. Finally, select the gear icon to enable measurements and to set step goals.
You should use the test icon at least once per month to verify the device’s ability to connect to an automated recording rather than trying to connect (and cancel) a call to a live agent. The watch audibly informs you whether the test was successful or not. Tapping the SOS icon does the same thing as the red SOS button on the side of the watch.
Swipe the app screen to the left to open a menu with icons for messages, reminders, and settings. Tap the reminders screen to view medicine and appointments. The messages icon enables you to send a voice message or a scripted text message to someone in your Support Circle and view any messages that a member sends. You can read incoming messages as text or play them back using the watch’s text-to-voice engine. The settings icon lets you view watch system information. Here, you can also choose one of three watch face styles, enable the Shake to Wake option (the watch wakes without requiring you to press the sleep/wake button), and toggle the Lockdown option (which locks certain settings to safeguard against accidental changes).
You and the members of your Support Circle can use the My Guardian web portal or mobile app (available for Android and iOS) to enter reminders and appointments, as well as to track the watch’s location. Both applications offer a history of alerts, daily step count details, system status readings, and caregiver information.
Simple Setup and Excellent Response TimeS
Setting up the MGMove is easy. Start by charging the watch for around two or three hours or until the charger LED turns green. Then, tap the Test icon to begin the automated setup process, and follow the voice prompt to state your name. Once the watch verifies the connection, it’s ready to use.
Next, download the mobile app or open the web portal, create an account using your watch’s UDI number (located on the back of the device), and add any medicine and appointment reminders if you subscribe to the Step Up Feature.
The MGMove watch performed very well in testing. It took only about 26 seconds on average to connect me to a live agent after I pressed the SOS button. That’s a couple of seconds faster than the LifeStation Sidekick Smart (28 seconds), and 20 seconds faster than the Kanega Watch (46 seconds). The responding agents were always polite and helpful, and conversations sounded loud and clear.
The step counter feature was spot-on, and matched the readings that I got from a Fitbit Inspire 2 fitness tracker. GPS tracking was also accurate.
A Connected Watch for Emergencies and More
With the Medical Guardian MGMove Smartwatch, you can quickly connect to an emergency response agent without wearing a traditional help button around your neck. Stylish and lightweight, the watch offers speedy response times, medicine and appointment reminders, and a handy mobile app that allows caregivers to stay in touch and monitor your activity and location. It doesn’t offer fall detection but, it’s still one of the more full-featured mobile medical alert devices we’ve tested, earning it our Editors’ Choice award for the category.
