Medical Guardian “MG Move” Medical Alert Smartwatch Review

Updated February 2024| ReliaScore™ 7.5 / 10

Product Overview

The MG Move is Medical Guardian’s entry into the growing market for medical alert smartwatches. The system is a full-featured smartwatch that can tell you the time and current weather. Plus, it has terrific add-on apps.

The system compares well with its leading competitors, including:

• The Apple Watch
• Bay Alarm Medical’s SOS Smartwatch
• LifeStation’s Sidekick Smart

MG Move versus other Medical Guardian products

The MG Move is one of three On-the-Go systems offered by Medical Guardian. On-the-Go systems are GPS-based medical alert systems that help seniors wherever they are in an emergency.

Why might you prefer the MG Move over Medical Guardian’s other On-the-Go systems, the MG Mini or MG Mini Lite? The main reason might be that your loved one will wear a smartwatch, while they may resist wearing a traditional medical alert system. Smartwatches look and feel like traditional wristwatches, which may make them more acceptable to some seniors.

The MG Move also includes a weather app and a step counter, with add-ons for appointment/medication reminders and text/chat apps. These technologies help seniors maintain their independence and increase self-confidence. Medication reminders alone help prevent  the  high  costs  and  risk  of  death  associated  with med errors.

It’s more than just a medical alert, and that’s another aspect that might make your loved one more likely to wear it.

On the other hand, there are three factors that may make you choose the Mini Guardian or Mobile 2.0 over the MG move:

• Price: The MG Move equipment costs $199.95, while the Mini Guardian and Mobile 2.0 both cost $124.95. This is in addition to the $39.95 monthly monitoring, shipping and any fees for add-on features.
• Battery Life: Like all smartwatches, the MG Move has a short battery life: 1 day versus 5 days for the Mobile 2.0 and Mini Guardian.
• Automatic Fall Detection: Like most other medical alert smartwatches, the MG Move doesn’t feature automatic fall detection. Smartwatches are worn on the wrist and that poses a challenge for automatic fall detection sensors, which could set off false alarms as you move your arm around. If automatic fall detection is a critical feature for you, choose the Mini Guardian or Mobile 2.0 systems over the MG Move. Both of those systems include an optional pendant with automatic fall detection.

Watch our video review for more details.

MG Move versus the Apple Watch

How does the MG Move compare to the big dog in the smartwatch space – the Apple Watch?

There are three important differences, which all point in MG Move’s favor.

• Price: At $199.95, the MG Move is considerably less expensive than an Apple Watch, which starts at $399.
• iPhone Requirements: Unlike the Apple Watch, the MG Move is a fully independent smartwatch that doesn’t require an iPhone or other cell phone to work.
• Monitored vs. Unmonitored: The MG Move comes backed by Medical Guardian’s 24/7 monitoring, while the Apple Watch is an unmonitored medical alert system, a type of medical alert system we don’t recommend (Note that it is possible to add monitoring to the Apple Watch through the FallCall Lite app, which has a 3.4-star rating in the Apple Store).

Unless your loved one is an avid iPhone user, the MG Move is probably a better choice than the Apple Watch.

Overall the MG Move was the highest priced medical alert watch we reviewed. Here’s how the watch compares to the other options we reviewed:

Medical Alert Watch Price Comparison Table

Key Features: An Elegantly Designed Smartwatch

We find the MG Move to be a well-designed smartwatch with a lot of features we love.

User Interface

The MG Move uses two easy buttons: a Sleep/Wake button and an SOS button. Both buttons are big and easy to press, even for a senior who may have reduced dexterity due to age or arthritis. It’s worth noting that the buttons are different colors and placed on opposite sides of the watch, so there’s less chance of accidentally pushing a button or pushing the wrong button.

The display is bright, with high contrast that makes it easy-to-read, an important factor for seniors who may have impaired vision.

The watch dial has a well-designed tap-and-swipe interface. You press the Sleep/Wake button, which makes the system display the time. After that, you tap the display to see the basic apps (SOS, Test, Step Counter and Weather). Swipe right to see other apps, like the Support Circle apps we chose when buying the system (more on these below). Swipe left to exit an app.

The look-and-feel of the watch is perhaps its strongest feature. We think any senior, even one who isn’t digitally savvy, could quickly learn to use the watch in a few minutes.

Battery Life & Charging

Smartwatches have a notoriously short battery life, and the MG Move is no different in this regard.

Medical Guardian’s website and customer support team says that their watch has enough charge for a “full day.” In our tests, we found that 24 hours is realistically the maximum life of the battery. With frequent use, it can last for less than a day.

With such a short battery life, charging is a critical feature for a smartwatch. This is one area where the MG Move stands out.

The system features an elegant charging cradle into which the watch slips easily. The cradle and watch are magnetized to ensure that the watch is turned in the right direction, so its charging pins connect properly to the cradle. The cradle literally pushes the watch away if you’ve turned the watch the wrong way. The MG Move also announces, “Watch charging!” when placed in the cradle, just to remove any doubt about the connection.

We see this as one of the strongest features of the MG Move. However, our testing experience was marred by reliability issues with the cradle. See “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” below.

Not to nitpick, but we wish that Medical Guardian shipped the MG Move with a fully charged battery.

Keep that in mind if you’re buying the watch for a family member. We suggest charging it before delivering your gift.

In our tests, the cradle charged the battery by 25% every hour.

Smartwatch Apps

Besides its SOS feature, the MG Move comes with several pre-installed apps:

• Test: A simple one-tap app that lets you test the SOS feature without actually calling the monitoring center.
• Step Counter: A basic fitness step counter.
• Weather: A basic app that shows the day’s weather in your current city.

When buying the MG Move, you have the option to add two other apps for an additional $5.00/month fee:

• Reminders: An app that lets the owner or caregiver set reminders through MyMedicalGuardian.com, Medical Guardian’s online caregiver portal. Caregivers can set reminders of appointments and medications online. The watch owner can then view these and get alerts at the time of the event.
• Messages: A text/chat app that lets caregivers log into the MyMedicalGuardian.com portal and send messages to the watch owner. Messages are announced with an alert. The owner can then read and either tap a yes/no reply or even record a voice reply.

We think these apps are well worth the extra monthly cost.

If you have a senior who doesn’t own a cell phone or doesn’t like to text, the simplified interface and voice options are a strong selling point for the Chat app.

MG Move Key Specifications

Pricing: Save With The Annual Plan

We purchased the MG Move with a Monthly Monitoring Plan and chose the add-on Support Circle apps for an extra $5.00/month. We also included the Lockbox, which costs an extra $2.99/month.

Here’s the final price in our shopping cart. Note that the /month fee is the $39.95 base monitoring fee, plus $5.00 for the Support Circle apps and $2.99 for the Lockbox.

Under the Monthly Plan, the total cost for the first 12 months equals $739.35, including the one-time $199.95 cost of the equipment and shipping.

The company offers a Quarterly Plan, but it doesn’t lower your monthly monitoring fee.

The Annual Plan

Medical Guardian makes a big push for their Annual Plan, where you pay for 12 months of monitoring up front.

If you opt for the 12-month plan you get a free month of monitoring, free shipping, plus the Lockbox option for free and reduces monthly monitoring fees to $36.62 (plus $5.00 for the Support Circle apps).

Here’s the price we were shown when choosing the Annual Plan with the same add-ons as the Monthly Plan.

If you do opt for the annual plan, know that you can cancel at any time and receive a refund for the unused months of monitoring. This applies only to the monthly fees, not your equipment cost.

Also note, that while you do get a free month of monitoring with the Annual Plan, you get this in your 13th month of service. So if you cancel your plan before then, you lose that free month.

Refunds & Returns

Be sure you know Medical Guardian’s return policy before you buy.

If you cancel and return the equipment, your refund depends on the number of days since purchase, as follows as of May 4th, 2022:

• 14 days unopened box = full refund
• Otherwise, $50 restocking fee.
• After 30 days, no returns.

These policies apply to the watch equipment itself. If you cancel your monitoring service, you’ll be refunded for any unused months.

Our Testing Experience: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Buying Experience

Our tests began with a call to Medical Guardian’s Sales department.

We spoke to a Sales Rep who was helpful and answered our questions about pricing, refunds, AARP discounts (no, they don’t offer any) and multilingual services.

The Sales Rep was helpful, but she did her best to encourage the Annual Plan. In doing so she shared incorrect information, whether deliberately or inadvertently.

She tried hard to steer us toward the Annual Plan, saying, “you get the most extra features that way.” As noted in our review of pricing, the Annual Plan does indeed save you 16% off your bill if you stick with Medical Guardian for 13 months.

Yet, the Sales Rep also incorrectly said you had to buy at least a Quarterly Plan, even though the website offered us a Monthly Plan. When we pointed that out, she backtracked, but still told us that the Quarterly or Annual Plan were still better options. Again, this isn’t entirely true since monitoring costs $39.95/month on both the Monthly Plan and Quarterly Plan.

Maybe our Sales Rep was inexperienced, but all of her mistakes would have resulted in us paying more.

Our advice: Call Medical Guardian’s Sales department if you have questions about features and options but buy your system directly through the website.

Our website buying experience was straightforward, with no hidden fees added during checkout.

We received a confirmation email and our MG Move arrived in the mail in 7 days.

Unboxing & Setup

Unboxing was also straightforward. Importantly, the package was easy for a senior to open, with no hard plastic packaging to maneuver.

The watch itself was a breeze to set up. We did need to place it in its charging cradle and give it four hours to fully charge. Once the watch was fully charged, we could complete the setup in just a few minutes.

The watch uses a cellular connection from AT&T. The SIM card is already installed, and Medical Guardian helpfully includes the SIM card holder in its packaging, just in case you need to reference the SIM number at any point. You don’t need an AT&T contract, as this is all included in your Medical Guardian monthly monitoring fee.

Equipment Problems

As mentioned under Battery Life & Charging above, we loved the MG Move’s charging cradle. For a system where battery life is key, Medical Guardian has done a lot to make it easy to charge their watch.

Unfortunately, our charging cradle failed within a week of purchase. The cradle’s power light went dark, and we could no longer charge the watch. We checked all cable connections and even changed the standard cell phone charging cable without luck.

We called Medical Guardian’s Customer Support and were offered a replacement cradle with no fuss. To their credit, the new cradle arrived within 2 business days and we could again use the watch.

Equipment problems do happen, so it’s important for the company to correct the problem as soon as possible. Medical Guardian stood behind their product and replaced it quickly.

The Caregiver Portal

The MG Move includes access to MyMedicalGuardian.com, an online caregiver portal. We find the online portal to be important for anyone buying the smartwatch for a loved one.

Besides letting you pay your bill, the portal includes a Managed Care menu with lots of important features, including:

• Location History: Maps the wearer’s current and past locations by street address.
• Health & Activity: This lets you see Heart Rate and other activity information.
• Step Counting: Lets you track the watch wearer’s daily steps.
• Activities & Reminders: Available only if you opt for the Support Circle apps, this page lets you enter reminders that are sent to the watch wearer. You can use this to remind your loved one to take medications, remind them of upcoming appointments or anything else you’d like to schedule.
• Chat: Located under the portal’s chat icon, this option is only available if you opt for the Support Circle apps. More on this important feature in the Support Circle section below.

While the portal is a powerful feature, it was a bit clumsy to add caregivers to the Support Circle. The process involves a two-factor authentication in which the caregiver creates an account at the MyMedicalGuardian.com portal and requests to connect with the watch owner. The owner then needs to approve the request. You’ll need to know your watch’s unique ID to perform this process. That ID is written on the back of the watch but is too small to read easily. The ID is also available on the MG Move box and in the online portal itself.

We understand the need for privacy, but we wish the process were a bit easier. If your senior isn’t tech-savvy, it might be a challenge getting them to approve new Support Circle members.

The Support Circle Apps

The Support Circle apps are an extremely useful set of features. If you are a caregiver, the Activities & Reminders and especially the Chat apps can make it easy to communicate with your loved one.

The Chat app is easy to use, both for the caregiver and the watch wearer. The caregiver logs into the online portal and sends a message, just like you would in any online chat app.

The watch wearer then receives a new message alert. Two large buttons give them the option to either read the message or have the watch read the message to them out loud. Responding to a chat message is also easy: your senior can choose to tap a “Yes” button, a “No” button, or tap a microphone button that lets them record a voice message. That voice message is then sent back as a text message.

We love the Chat app and see it as a great option for communicating with a senior who doesn’t own a smartphone or doesn’t like traditional text messaging.

Service Outage

However, during our testing the Chat app experienced a major service outage. It worked fine on the Day One of testing. On Day Two the online portal’s chat function didn’t work. We waited a full day to see if the app came back online, without luck.

We called Customer Support to report the outage. The Support Rep told us that she would escalate the issue, and that someone from their Tech Support Team would contact us within 24 hours.

Unfortunately, we never received any communication from Tech Support.

The outage lasted for at least 72 hours, from April 12-14, and may have lasted longer than that. When we checked the app again on April 24, everything worked fine.

This outage is a concern, both because of how long the outage lasted and Tech Support’s failure to reach out to us. By any measure, this was a failure.

That’s a shame, because we see the Support Circle as a key service differentiator for the MG Move. However, the Chat and Reminders apps must have a high uptime to be reliable. An outage that lasts for several days suggests that you may not be able to count on these apps when you need them.

The Bottom Line

The MG Move smartwatch has all the ingredients of a really great medical alert system, but the product experience is marred by reliability issues.

The watch has a well-designed user interface that’s easy for seniors to use.

While we love the watch’s charging cradle, our cradle failed in its first week and had to be replaced.

And while we think the Support Circle apps are a wonderful add-on, the Chat app’s multi-day service outage makes us question if the app will work when we really need it.

If you think your loved one is more likely to wear a smartwatch than a traditional “around-the-neck” medical alert button, then the MG Move is a product you should consider.

Just be prepared for some glitches and reliability issues.