Here’s how to use your smartphone’s SOS function in an emergency

Regardless of the make or model of your smartphone, it almost certainly has a built-in SOS emergency call feature that you’ll hopefully never have to use, but be aware of just in case. Like this new tool from Apple.

Whether it’s a medical emergency or other safety issues, your goal is to let emergency services and your contacts know that you have a problem and where you are. The same goes for warnings about climate catastrophes.

For this reason, today we will explain how your phone’s emergency service or SOS function works, thinking about the most commonly used operating systems: iOS and Android. In the case of the latter, we choose the best-selling brand, Samsung, and the purest experience, Google Pixel.

Emergency call on iPhone

If you’re using an iPhone, the Emergency SOS feature allows you to quickly call the emergency services in the country you’re in and tell one or more selected contacts that you need help.

Although there are some steps you should take before doing this:

• First you will need to set up these contacts. In the Health app, tap your profile picture, then select Medical ID.
• Tap Edit andin the Emergency Contacts section, select Add emergency contact to select one or more names from the address book.
• These people will receive a message when you have used the emergency SOS feature and will be sent your current location. Click “Done” when you’re done.

There is another options screen that you should pay attention to first. If you go to “Settings” and then “Emergency SOS”, you can enable both hold call featurewhich calls the emergency services with the hold of a button.

How to call in 5 taps, which calls emergency services if one of the side buttons is quickly pressed five times in a row. In both cases, you will see a short countdown before the call is made.

To access the SOS emergency call feature, press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons, then use the emergency SOS sliderwhich will call emergency services in your area.

You can also continue to press and hold the side and volume buttons if you have previously activated the Call Hold feature.

Emergency call on Samsung

If you have a Samsung phone, you can set up the SOS emergency call feature by going to the main Settings app and selecting Security & Emergency. Turn on the send SOS message switch to set how many quick side button presses are required.

Once activated, your emergency contacts will be notified that you need assistance and will be able to track your location for 24 hours.. During the setup process, you can select emergency contacts from your contact list.

On the send SOS message screen, you can also add photos and a five-second audio recording to the SOS message you send. Also, you can make your Samsung Galaxy phone automatically call someone after sending messages.

Back on the Security & Emergency screen, you can use other options: from there, you can edit your emergency contact list and enable the ability to share your location when making an emergency call.

Emergency call on Google Pixel

When it comes to Google Pixel phones, you’ll find that the device has the Security app preinstalled, and that’s where the Emergency SOS feature lives.

You can press Emergency SOS right at the top of the home screen and then turn on quick presses so that the feature will unlock when you press the power button five times in a row.

Further on the same screen, you can configure the settings that control its operation. With five presses of the power button, you can sound a loud alarm, call local emergency services in your current region, share your location with emergency contacts, and record video.

The emergency contacts option is located in the main menu of the security app.. Click “App Contact” if you want to select someone new and then select them from your contact list.

Return to the main screen of the “Security” application, you can also activate traffic accident detection.

If your Pixel phone thinks you’re in an accident, it will beep and ask if you’re okay.; if you do not answer this invitation, the phone will call for emergency assistance.

Emergency call on all other Android phones

While we could make this list endless with dozens of Android phone brands, The reality is that Android has a default app called Security. which is found in almost all smartphones sold in the last five years.

This app has security-related default Android options. That is: emergency call, contact call, real-time GPPS position, etc. It is you, the users, who will have to customize the response you want.