How to activate the SOS emergency call function on iPhone and Android phone

Last weekend, a 21-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a criminal in the southeast of Bengaluru city. Despite the traumatic experience, the young woman showed remarkable presence of mind and turned on the SOS security feature on her phone to get immediate help from her loved ones.

This allowed the victim’s friends to get to the crime scene more quickly and prevent the perpetrator from causing further harm to the girl.

All phones – Android and iPhones – have security features, but few know how to use them. This can be useful in serious situations and potentially save your life.

To use the SOS security feature on an Android phone:

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone.

Step 2: Tap “Safety & Emergency” and then tap “Emergency SOS”.

Step 3: Tap “Start Setup” at the bottom right.

If you need help, your phone can initiate emergency response.

Step 1: Tap Start to set up your emergency number.

If you need to change your local emergency number, tap Change Number.

Once you have the correct local number, tap Next.

To share your location information with your emergency contacts and send them updates, tap Start Setup

Step 1: Then tap “Add Contact” and then select a contact with whom you want to share information in an emergency.

Step 2: Choose what information Emergency SOS should share with your emergency contact.

Step 3: Tap Next.

To share your location in an emergency, you must allow the Personal Safety app to access your location while using the app.

Step 3: Tap Next and then tap While using the app.

To have Emergency SOS start emergency recording while still being able to use your phone’s other features, scroll down and tap Start Setup.

If you want to record an emergency video, tap Turn On, then tap When Using the App.

The user can choose whether to automatically share the video with the emergency contacts after backing it up on the device. Select “Automatically share after backup” and then select “Next”.

To initiate emergency SOS actions, select one of the following options:

Step 1: Select “Touch and hold to launch actions”.

Step 2: Select “Start actions immediately after countdown”. If you want to trigger an alarm with this option, enable “Play alarm sound”.

Step 3: Tap Done.

To turn on the emergency location service:

Step 1: On your Android phone, open the Settings app.

Step 2: Tap Location, then tap Location Services, then tap Emergency Location Service or Google Emergency Location Service.

Step 3: Turn Emergency Location Service or Google Emergency Location Service on or off.

Once the SOS emergency call feature is set up, you can test it to see how it works. Simply press the side button five times. A message will flash to confirm that it is an emergency. It will then immediately contact the local police control center 112 and send the location data to the relatives registered in the contact list.

To enable the SOS safety feature on your iPhone:

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Tap “Emergency SOS”.

Step 3: Enable Hold and Release Call, 5-Press Call, or Silent Call.

To add emergency contact information, the user must update the data in the Health app:

Step 1: Open the Health app and tap your profile picture.

Step 2: Tap Medical ID.

Step 3: Tap Edit and then scroll to Emergency Contacts.

Step 4: Tap the Add button to add an emergency contact.

Step 5: Tap a contact and then add their relationship, then tap Done to save the changes.

Once this is done, the SOS emergency function can be used at any time in a serious situation.

In India, the user has to press the side button three times in quick succession and the iPhone will automatically call emergency services.

If the user continues to hold the Side button and the Volume button instead of dragging the slider, a countdown will start and an alarm will sound. If he/she releases the buttons after the countdown, the iPhone will automatically call emergency services.

And after an emergency call ends, iPhone notifies emergency contacts via text message unless the user turns this option off. iPhone sends the current location (if available) and—for a period of time after the user enters SOS mode—emergency contacts receive updates when the location changes.

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