Emergency SOS?

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Level 1

59 points

Emergency SOS?

I was hiking in the mountains near the city where I live, and getting ready to take a picture, when I saw an Emergency SOS countdown appear on my screen completely randomly. I didn't even know my iPhone 12 mini had an Emergency SOS!? I had literally 3 seconds to try to figure out how to turn it off. I started pressing buttons randomly, and apparently it was turned off, although I never received any confirmation one way or the other. I had no idea taking a picture with my iPhone was so dangerous! It's good thing I was able to turn the SOS off because cell reception is intermittent in the mountains here, and if emergency personnel received the phone's SOS, they might not have been able to contact me to confirm it, in which case they might have sent out a medical helicopter to my phone. Flying a helicopter through mountains is always dangerous.

Apparently Apple regards randomly sending out an emergency SOS for no reason to be a feature, not a bug; otherwise this would not have happened. But I don't really like it, and I wonder if there is some way to prevent this from happening again in the future.

iPhone 12 mini, iOS 14

Posted on Apr 24, 2021 10:01 AM

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Answer 1

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Johnathan Burger

Level 9

66,901 points

Apr 24, 2021 10:08 AM in response to Arandel

Use Emergency SOS on your iPhone – Apple Support

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Answer 2

Arandel Author

Level 1

59 points

Apr 24, 2021 11:05 AM in response to Johnathan Burger

Thanks for that link. But I find the support page rather confusing.

For example, what is "Auto call"?

The support page appears to be factually incorrect. It says, "If you continue to hold down the side button and Volume button, instead of dragging the slider, a countdown will start and an alert will sound. If you hold down the buttons until the countdown has finished, your iPhone will automatically call the emergency services."

First of all, I didn't hold any buttons or slide any sliders. I just took up my phone and woke it up. And no alert sounded. And the countdown continued until I cancelled it.

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Answer 3

Apr 24, 2021 11:10 AM in response to Arandel

Your phone will send an SOS if it detects that you have fallen, and you don’t acknowledge the question asking if you are OK. Also if you press and hold the Side and Volume Up buttons and don’t cancel or turn off the phone. It never sends SOS randomly, only under these specific conditions.

I carry the phone in a belt holster. Occasionally I have activated SOS if I inadvertently rest an arm on top of the holster, which presses the phone down against the bottom of the case and also presses the Side button on the top of the case.

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Emergency SOS?

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