With an iPhone you may feel a little safer, because if something suddenly happens to you, you can quickly call the emergency services via SOS emergency notification. In some cases the iPhone can even do this automatically, for example in the event of an accident.
iOS 18 gives iPhone users in an emergency situation an additional way to provide more information to emergency services. To achieve this, iOS 18 Emergency SOS notifications will gain support for live video and media sending.
How to call emergency services
You can reach the emergency services by holding down the side button and a volume button. Then swipe SOS to the right to call the emergency number. If you hold down the power button and volume button, you can also start calling immediately.
It is possible to call the emergency number directly by quickly pressing the side button of your iPhone five times in succession. After this, SOS Emergency will be activated and the emergency number will be called automatically. If you want to use this option, you have to enable it via Settings â–¸ SOS Emergency â–¸ Enable ‘Call with five button presses’.
Emergency notifications with live video
Starting with iOS 18, SOS Emergency Notifications also supports live video. This means that once the SOS feature is activated, streaming video and recorded media can be sent to emergency services. Emergency responders can send a request to a user to share live video or a video from their camera roll.
Video is sent to the emergency centre via a secure connection. This new option enables people in emergency situations to send important information. To inform the emergency services about the situation on site, where the incident is taking place and to assess injuries or risks. In addition, this additional information can be used as evidence at a later time.
SOS emergency notifications
SOS Emergency is a feature on the ‌iPhone‌ and Apple Watch that automatically dials the emergency number. This also shares location data with the emergency services. The number dialed depends on your current location, in Europe this will be 112.
In addition to calling emergency services, SOS Emergency can also alert contacts using a message. This message states that you have called emergency services and your current location. You must create the contacts in your Medical ID, which you can find in the Health app.
Life-saving features
The SOS emergency notifications do not stand alone. Within iOS and watchOS, the Crash Detection, Fall Detection and Emergency SOS via satellite functions also make use of them. Both manually and fully automatically, these functions can automatically contact the emergency services.