With all the bad things happening around us, it is better to be safe than sorry. Whenever there is a case of kidnapping or criminal acts, iPhone users have a feature that can quickly toggle an emergency option that has all the first responders' caller IDs.
Here are some steps to follow to keep users safe in a time of peril and emergency.
How to Use an iPhone as an Emergency SOS
According to PopSugar, iPhone 8 units and above have an Emergency SOS built-in feature that allows users to call emergency services and emergency contacts. To activate this, press and hold down the side button and volume button simultaneously until the Emergency SOS slider appears on the screen.
Then, users can slide the Emergency SOS button to call emergency hotlines or continue to hold down the side and volume buttons until an alert sounds off and a countdown begins ticking. Continuing to hold the two buttons throughout the countdown will automatically contact emergency hotlines such as 911, fire departments, hospitals and more.
Apple also noted that users must choose the service they have from police, fire, and hospitals in some countries and regions. Users can also add emergency contacts to send their current location after a call from an emergency hotline. And for a period of time after users enter the SOS mode, the device sends updates to emergency contacts of the user's current location.
How to Add and Remove Emergency Contacts
To add or remove certain emergency contacts, users must go to the Health App, tap to their profile picture, tap on the Medical ID, and tap Edit to scroll down to Emergency Contacts. Click the green add button to add an emergency contact and write down your relationship with them. Tap done and save the changes.
On the other hand, removing emergency contacts on the Emergency SOS will also take the users to the Health Application on the iPhone and simply click the red delete button on the Medical ID option.
How to Turn off Auto Call
According to iMore, if users are worried about making an Emergency SOS call accidentally, users should consider disabling the auto-call feature that will always call emergency services after the SOS countdown ends.
To disable the auto-call feature, go to the Setting App and tap the Emergency SOS option to switch it off. Take note that users cannot easily access emergency services manually by pressing the side buttons or volume buttons with auto-call off.
Meanwhile, disabling the Emergency SOS features requires many steps. The countdown can be useful in many situations, but not in a setting where silence is golden like a hostage scene--when users do not want any noise to attract the bad guys into them--these steps will help them.
First, launch the Setting app, go to the Emergency SOS option and tap the Countdown Sound On/Off switch. When the switch is grey, it means the feature has been turned off.
This guide will help users in case they may run into trouble wherever they may be. Remember that an iPhone has an Emergency SOS feature and to set all the primary settings beforehand rather than later.
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