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User profile for user: connorfromathensg
connorfromathensg Author
User level: Level 1
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Apple watch keeps swiping Emergency SOS

I have a brand new Apple Watch 3 that I purchased one week ago. A few days ago I was ordering food and my watch made a loud woop sound like a siren and i look down and somehow my watch had turned on and was on the emergency screen with the 3 sliders and I watch as the slider for Emergency SOS swipes all the way through without anything touching it or near it. I quickly powered off of it and was kind of spooked but I thought it was a one time thing and continued on, but in the past two days the same exact thing has happened on two occasions. All three times nothing has been touching my watch.

Watch Series 3 (GPS) Alum 42mm, iOS 11.4.1

Posted on Jul 28, 2018 9:57 PM

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User profile for user: Leanne_68
Leanne_68
User level: Community Specialist

Posted on Jul 29, 2018 11:47 AM

Good morning Connor!

I see that you have some concerns about your Apple Watch calling emergency services even when nothing is touching the Apple Watch. I'll be happy to provide help out with this.

Here's some information about how Emergency SOS works from Use Emergency SOS on your Apple Watch :

Here's how to make a call:

  1. Press and hold the side button on your watch until the Emergency SOS slider appears.
  2. Continue to hold down the side button. Wait for a countdown to begin and an alert to sound. You can also drag the Emergency SOS slider.
  3. When the countdown ends, your watch automatically calls emergency services.
It sounds like when you watched the slider move to call Emergency SOS, the Apple Watch might have thought the side button was pushed down until the time limit was reached. Because of this, it may be helpful to turn off auto-calling. With auto-calling turned off, you can still call emergency services using the side button, but it no longer will be automatic after a time has been reached of pushing the side button. Here's how to turn it off from the same article above:

Turn off Hold to Auto Call

You can change the setting so that holding the side button won't call emergency services automatically:

  1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and tap the My Watch tab.
  2. Tap General > Emergency SOS.
  3. Turn off Hold to Auto Call.

If you turn off this setting, you can still use the Emergency SOS slider to make a call.


While this should help with the worry of the Apple Watch making calls unprompted, there still might be an issue with the side button since emergency services appear to be activating without anything touching the Apple Watch. Do you have a screen protector that could be interfering with that button? When you the Apple Watch called emergency services previously, do you recall if the side button was pressed in at all?

Keep us updated. Cheers.
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User profile for user: Leanne_68
Leanne_68
User level: Community Specialist

Jul 29, 2018 11:47 AM in response to connorfromathensg

Good morning Connor!

I see that you have some concerns about your Apple Watch calling emergency services even when nothing is touching the Apple Watch. I'll be happy to provide help out with this.

Here's some information about how Emergency SOS works from Use Emergency SOS on your Apple Watch :

Here's how to make a call:

  1. Press and hold the side button on your watch until the Emergency SOS slider appears.
  2. Continue to hold down the side button. Wait for a countdown to begin and an alert to sound. You can also drag the Emergency SOS slider.
  3. When the countdown ends, your watch automatically calls emergency services.
It sounds like when you watched the slider move to call Emergency SOS, the Apple Watch might have thought the side button was pushed down until the time limit was reached. Because of this, it may be helpful to turn off auto-calling. With auto-calling turned off, you can still call emergency services using the side button, but it no longer will be automatic after a time has been reached of pushing the side button. Here's how to turn it off from the same article above:

Turn off Hold to Auto Call

You can change the setting so that holding the side button won't call emergency services automatically:

  1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and tap the My Watch tab.
  2. Tap General > Emergency SOS.
  3. Turn off Hold to Auto Call.

If you turn off this setting, you can still use the Emergency SOS slider to make a call.


While this should help with the worry of the Apple Watch making calls unprompted, there still might be an issue with the side button since emergency services appear to be activating without anything touching the Apple Watch. Do you have a screen protector that could be interfering with that button? When you the Apple Watch called emergency services previously, do you recall if the side button was pressed in at all?

Keep us updated. Cheers.
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Apple watch keeps swiping Emergency SOS

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