Table of Contents
Women are sharing an emergency iPhone feature which allows you quickly alert emergency services if you are in danger.
It comes in the wake of Sarah Everard’s disappearance in Clapham, south London last week.
Thousands of women have been sharing their experiences of feeling unsafe or being sexually harassed by men in public, and a vigil has been set up for Ms Everard, and for “all women who feel unsafe, who go missing from our streets and who face violence every day”.
Influencer @theindiaedit posted the iPhone tip on her Instagram story on Thursday, and it has quickly spread across social media.
Here is how to use it.
How to make an emergency SOS call
To call emergency services on an iPhone 8 or later:
- Press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons until the “Emergency SOS” slider appears
- Drag the slider to call emergency services. If you continue to hold down the side button and volume button, instead of dragging the slider, a countdown will start and an alert will sound. If you hold down the buttons until the countdown has finished, your phone will automatically call the emergency services
On an iPhone 7 or earlier:
- Rapidly press the side (or top) button five times. The Emergency SOS slider will appear
- Drag the slider to call emergency services
Once the call is over, your phone will send your emergency contacts a text message with your current location, even if your location services were previously switched off.
If your location changes your contacts will get an update and you will get a notification about 10 minutes later.
If you use the Emergency SOS shortcut, you will need to enter your passcode to re-enable Touch ID, even if you didn’t complete a call to emergency services.
You can turn off the alert and the automatic messages to your emergency contacts by going to Settings, tapping Emergency SOS and toggling Auto Call off. You will still be ale to use the slider to make a call to emergency services.
How to set up emergency contacts
To add emergency contacts, who will automatically be alerted after you make an SOS call:
- Open the Health app and tap your profile picture
- Tap Medical ID
- Tap Edit and then scroll to Emergency Contacts
- Tap the add button to add an emergency contact
- Tap a contact, then add their relationship
- Tap Done to save your changes
How to make emergency calls on other phones
Samsung
You can make an emergency call by tapping on the option on your lock screen. This will allow you to enter the local emergency number, or quickly call one of your emergency contacts.
Samsung phones also have an Emergency Mode, which keeps your phone running even on low battery and gives you easier access to emergency options.
Turn this on my holding down the power button and then tapping Emergency Mode.
You can also set up SOS messages, by going to Settings > Advanced Features > SOS Messages. This will allow you to toggle emergency messages on or off, and pick your emergency contacts.
To send an SOS message, tap the power button three or four times in a row.
Google Pixel
You can make an emergency call from your lock screen by holding down the power button, then hitting Emergency. This will give you a quick link to call the local emergency number, or someone else via a dial pad.
Pixel phones also have a Safety app, through which you can set up emergency contacts and share your location with these contacts.
Huawei
On Huawei phones you can make emergency calls from the lock screen by tapping Emergency. Your phone will automatically obtain your location and display it on the screen.
Enter your local emergency number and touch the phone button to call. Alternatively, tap Emergency Information and select an emergency contact to call.
To enable emergency contacts, hit Settings > Security > Emergency SOS, and toggle on “Also send SOS message”, then set your emergency contacts.
Once you have enabled the feature, if you encounter an emergency, press the power button five times in quick succession and your phone will automatically send a message with your current location to your emergency contacts.
