The iPhone Emergency SOS feature makes it easy to get help right away. With it, you can make calls to emergency services and notify your designated emergency contacts of your situation and your location using the iPhone’s GPS.
What Is iPhone Emergency SOS?
Emergency SOS is built into iOS 12 and iOS 11. When you activate it:
Instructions in this article apply to iPhones with iOS 12 or iOS 11, and Apple Watches with watchOS 5 and earlier.
- Moving a slider or pressing a button places a call to local emergency services.An alarm lets you know that an emergency call is about to be placed.The iPhone notifies designated emergency contacts of your location (your phone’s location).Your emergency contacts are notified when your phone moves to a different location.
Because Emergency SOS requires iOS 12 or iOS 11 to work, it’s only available on iPhones with those operating systems. That’s the iPhone 5S, iPhone SE, and on up through the iPhone XR and XS. You can find the iPhone Emergency SOS features in Settings > Emergency SOS. The same emergency SOS features are available on the Apple Watch.
How to Make an Emergency SOS Call
Calling for help with Emergency SOS is easy, but how you do it depends on the iPhone model you have. Access to Emergency SOS is available from the iPhone Home screen, whether it’s locked or not.
iPhone X and iPhone 8
On iPhone X and iPhone 8, you have two options: either click the side button five times in rapid succession or hold the side button and a volume button at the same time until the Emergency SOS slider appears on the screen. Rapidly clicking the button five times triggers the call to emergency services. When you move the Emergency SOS slider, the call begins right away.
If you continue to hold the side and volume buttons, a countdown to the call begins, and an alert sounds. Continue to hold these buttons until the end of the countdown, and the call to emergency services starts.
iPhone 7 and Earlier
On the iPhone 7 and earlier models, the only way to trigger Emergency SOS is to click the side button five times rapidly. This causes the Emergency SOS slider to appear on the screen. When you drag the Emergency SOS slider, the phone calls emergency services.
Notifying Your Emergency Contacts
After your call with emergency services ends, your emergency contacts receive a text message. The text message lets them know your current location, as determined by your phone’s GPS. Even if Location Services is turned off in the iPhone settings, it’s temporarily enabled to supply this information.
If your location changes, another text is sent to your contacts with the new information. To turn off these notifications, tap the status bar at the top of the screen and then tap Stop Sharing Emergency Location.
How to Cancel an Emergency SOS Call
Ending an Emergency SOS call—either because the emergency is over or because the call was an accident—is simple:
- If you set up emergency contacts, you also have to indicate whether you want to cancel notifying them.
- On the Emergency SOS screen, tap the Stop button.
- In the menu that appears at the bottom of the screen, tap Stop Calling.
How to Disable iPhone Emergency SOS Calls
By default, triggering an Emergency SOS call using the side button or by continuing to hold the two-button combination immediately places a call to emergency services and notifies your emergency contacts. If you think there’s a high likelihood that you’ll accidentally trigger Emergency SOS, disable the feature and stop mistaken 911 calls. Here’s how:
If you set up emergency contacts, you also have to indicate whether you want to cancel notifying them.
On the Emergency SOS screen, tap the Stop button.
In the menu that appears at the bottom of the screen, tap Stop Calling.
- On the iPhone Home screen, tap Settings.
- Tap Emergency SOS.
- Move the Auto Call toggle switch to the Off/white position.
How to Disable the Emergency SOS Countdown Sound
One of the hallmarks of an emergency is a loud alarm to draw your attention to the situation. That’s the case with the iPhone’s Emergency SOS when you have Auto Call activated. When an emergency call is triggered, a loud sound plays during the countdown to the call so that you know the call is imminent. If you’d rather not hear that sound, follow these steps:
On the iPhone Home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Emergency SOS.
Move the Auto Call toggle switch to the Off/white position.
- On the iPhone Home screen, tap Settings.
- Tap Emergency SOS.
- Move the Countdown Sound toggle switch to the Off/white position.
How to Add Emergency Contacts
The Emergency SOS feature’s ability to automatically notify the most important people in your life of an emergency is valuable. However, you need to add contacts to the Health app that comes with iOS for it to work. Here’s what you need to do:
On the iPhone Home screen, tap Settings.
Tap Emergency SOS.
Move the Countdown Sound toggle switch to the Off/white position.
- On the iPhone Home screen, tap Settings.
- Tap Emergency SOS.
- Tap Set up Emergency Contacts in Health to open your Medical ID in the Health app.
- Set up your Medical ID if you haven’t done so by filling in your birthdate, any medical conditions or notes, allergies, and medications. Tap Edit at the top of the screen to make changes.
- Scroll down to the Emergency Contacts section, then tap add emergency contact, which opens your address book.
- Select a contact from your address book by browsing or searching. You can only select people who are in your Contacts, so add them to your address book before you get to this step.
- Tap the relationship of the contact to you to enter the contact as an emergency. Tap add emergency contact again to add additional people.
- Tap Done when you’re finished.
The emergency contacts you entered are now listed in both your Medical ID and the Emergency SOS screen.
Tap Set up Emergency Contacts in Health to open your Medical ID in the Health app.
Set up your Medical ID if you haven’t done so by filling in your birthdate, any medical conditions or notes, allergies, and medications. Tap Edit at the top of the screen to make changes.
Scroll down to the Emergency Contacts section, then tap add emergency contact, which opens your address book.
Select a contact from your address book by browsing or searching. You can only select people who are in your Contacts, so add them to your address book before you get to this step.
Tap the relationship of the contact to you to enter the contact as an emergency. Tap add emergency contact again to add additional people.
Tap Done when you’re finished.
How to Use Emergency SOS on the Apple Watch
When you can’t reach your iPhone, you can make an Emergency SOS call on your Apple Watch. On the original and Series 2 Apple Watch models, your iPhone needs to be nearby for the watch to connect to it, or the watch needs to be connected to Wi-Fi and have Wi-Fi calling enabled. If you have a Series 3 or later Apple Watch with an active cellular data plan, you can call from the watch. Here’s how:
- Hold the side button (not the digital crown) on the watch until the Emergency SOS slider appears.
- Slide the Emergency SOS button to the right, or keep holding the side button.
- The countdown begins, and an alarm sounds. At the end of the countdown, the call is placed.
- Cancel the call by tapping the End Call button or, on some models, firmly pressing the screen and then tapping End Call.
When your call with emergency services ends, your emergency contacts receive a text message with your location.
Hold the side button (not the digital crown) on the watch until the Emergency SOS slider appears.
Slide the Emergency SOS button to the right, or keep holding the side button.
The countdown begins, and an alarm sounds. At the end of the countdown, the call is placed.
Cancel the call by tapping the End Call button or, on some models, firmly pressing the screen and then tapping End Call.
Similar to the iPhone, you have the option of pressing the side button only and not touching the screen. This makes Emergency SOS calls easy to place. To enable that option, open the Watch app on your iPhone, select Emergency SOS, then move the Hold Side Button toggle switch to the On/green position.
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