Why would you want to set up emergency SOS location tracking? There’s a variety of scenarios where you may not be able to talk on a phone, but you will be able to find a way to send your location to trusted individuals.
You can also have an easy way to directly call the emergency services through these features too, so they’re worth setting up for when you may need them in the future.
How does it work on iPhone?
Emergency SOS is already available when you take an iPhone out of the box, but there are some ways you can set it up to work better. It works in all countries, but in some places you may only be able to choose one particular emergency service.
Making an emergency services call is simple from an iPhone, but the way it works differs depending on the model of iPhone you have.
iPhone 8 or later
If you own an iPhone 8 or later (that’s if your phone came out after 2017) you can hold down the side button and the volume buttons. Then, you’ll find a slider on the screen that says “Emergency SOS”.
If you drag this across, it’ll make an immediate call to the emergency services.
If you can’t slide this across, continue to hold down the buttons and you’ll find your phone makes an alert noise with a countdown. That countdown will finish with the phone calling the emergency services, so this is particularly useful if you can’t take your phone out of a pocket.
iPhone 7 or earlier
On an older iPhone, you’ll want to hit the side button five times in rapid succession, or for those in India you’ll find you only need to hit the button three times. You’ll then find the Emergency SOS slider will appear where you can immediately make the call.
When the call has finished, it’ll then send your emergency contacts a text message with your current location. You have the option to cancel this before the messages are sent, but for this to work you’ll need to have emergency contacts set up.
How to add an emergency contact
Why would you want an emergency contact? First off, it can help emergency services identify who to contact and on Apple devices these people will immediately receive a message of your location after your call with the emergency services.
To set this up, select the Health app and select the profile picture. In here, you’ll find an option called Medical ID and at the bottom of the page you’ll find an option called emergency contacts.
Here is where you can enter information of the contact, a relationship and their phone number as well. Select done afterward, and you’ve set up your emergency contact. You can have several of these on your iPhone at one time.
How does it work on Apple Watch?
A similar feature exists for those with an Apple Watch, and you can hold down on the side button for a few moments until the Emergency SOS appears. Note that your iPhone will need to be nearby to make the call, unless you have an LTE version of the Apple Watch.
If you continue to hold down the button, a countdown will begin and at the end of the countdown the call to emergency services will begin. After that, your emergency contacts will receive the same text with your location like if you were doing this on an iPhone.
For more information, check out Apple’s official Emergency SOS information.
