What is SOS?Emergency SOS is a feature available on iPhones running IOS 11 or later. Essentially, the tool allows you to contact emergency services quickly. After your emergency call ends, your device will alert your emergency contacts with a text message containing your current location. Your location will continually update as it changes (this only applies for a short while after you enter SOS mode). If you have an iPhone 8 or above, simply hold the side button and one of the volume buttons until the "Emergency SOS" slider appears. If you have an iPhone 7 or below, rapidly click the side button (or top button) 5 times and the slider will appear. See below on how to customise the slider. Enabling Auto Call.Enabling auto call will cause your phone to begin a 3 second countdown, after which emergency services will automatically be contacted. This countdown allows for time to cancel the call if needed. An alarm will sound on your device during the countdown, regardless of whether your device is on silent/do not disturb. To enable auto call, head to the "Settings" app and scroll down to "Emergency SOS". Here, auto call can be turned on and off with a single slider. When the slider is enabled, you will also have the option to enable/disable the alarm if you choose to do so. Emergency Contacts and Medical ID.Another great feature of the iPhone is the Medical ID. Under the health app, your medical ID can be edited to contain information such as your blood type, medications, donor status and emergency contacts. This is helpful in emergency scenarios and allows responders to gain some background information. To set up your Medical ID, open the "Health" app that is preinstalled on your iPhone. On the bottom right corner, you will find a section titled "Medical ID". Enter this section to proceed. From here, click on "Edit" in the top left corner to begin entering data. Your Medical ID works similar to that of a contact card, however, with more information. At the same time, you will be given the option to enable Emergency Access. Again, this can be toggled on and off with the click of a button. Emergency Access allows your Medical ID to become viewable when your iPhone is locked. Besides this, a key feature that should be enabled is "Emergency Contacts". This can be done by adding at least one contact to the list. Note.This guide is in no way affiliated with Apple. This guide is merely a simplified version of one released by Apple. The full version can be found here.
While I am a strong advocate for the Emergency Features of the iPhone, they are by no means going to be 100% effective. But, something is better than nothing when it's an emergency. Comments are closed.
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