Best Buy Partners with Apple to Offer Apple Watch Health & Safety Services

Among third-party retailers, Best Buy pretty much leads the way in terms of Apple Watch sales and promotions. Late last year it offered six months of Apple Fitness+ with the purchase of any new Apple Watch, and now the big-box retailer is offering even more incentive to purchase an Apple Watch as part of its health and safety services offering.

In an announcement this week, the retailer announced that its health division, Best Buy Health, will be partnering with Apple and Greatcall to bring a full array of health and safety services to the Apple Watch.

Greatcall’s Lively app is designed to provide features for seniors and other users who may have limited mobility or restricted lifestyles that require quick access to urgent or emergency care as well as the ability for loved ones to more easily check in on their health and well-being.

At home or on the go, Apple Watch users with the Lively app can get assistance from highly trained Lively Urgent Response Agents to get help in emergency and non-emergency situations. Agents can assist with everything from medical emergencies to sending help if a user has car trouble.

Best Buy announcement

The app is available on both the iPhone and Apple Watch, and allows users to access urgent care at any time by speaking to a registered nurse or board-certified doctor, along with a link feature that keeps loved ones informed.

It also ties into the Apple Watch Fall Detection feature, not only by notifying the usual emergency services (e.g. 911), but also automatically contacting Lively’s Urgent Response service.

This not only extends to emergencies, however, as the trained healthcare professionals, or “Urgent Response Agents,” on the other end will be able to help in more appropriate ways. For example, a senior who finds themselves locked out of their home is more likely to need a locksmith than an ambulance.

To help bring the Lively service to more users who need it, Best Buy is offering up to $200 off the purchase of a new Apple Watch Series 6, or up to $150 off the price of an Apple Watch SE for anybody who signs up for $29.99/month Lively Preferred Health & Safety Plan on a two-year contract.

The Preferred Health & Safety package includes three key features: Urgent Response, which “provides a connection to highly trained Agents who can help in emergencies, big or small, 24/7,” plus Urgent Care that provides access to speak with a registered nurse or board-certified doctor from anywhere, with no appointment, insurance plan, or co-pay required.

Lastly, the GreatCall Link app keeps friends and family informed about the health and safety of the primary user, offering alerts when Urgent Response is contacted, as well as the ability to monitor location, device’s battery life and daily activity.

The Best Buy and Apple partnership is bringing one significant new feature to the table, however, in the form of Live Agent Assist, which will use Apple’s new Fall Detection API to inform actual human Lively Agents when a fall has occurred so that they can contact the user to confirm if they’re okay and specifically get in touch with family members if needed.

Best Buy notes that it “worked closely with Apple” to put this feature in place, and this represents one of the first apps and services to take advantage of the new Fall Detection API that was introduced in watchOS 7.2 late last year.

While the plan will obviously cost more over the long-term, Best Buy is offering the discount in the hopes that it will remove one of the up-front costs that may prevent seniors from being able to take advantage of the service.

Plus, with the Apple Watch now supporting Family Setup, it’s even easier to provide an Apple Watch to ensure that an elderly loved one can stay connected and access the care they need.