How to make Emergency Calls on your iPhone?

Almost with all smartphones you can make Emergency Calls and so you do with your iPhone.  Make sure you’re running the latest version of iOS on your iPhone if you want to make an emergency call. So this means Emergency SOS only works if you’re running iOS 11 or later like iOS 12 or iOS 13. But if you still are one of those clinging to older iPhones then first update your iphone with latest ioS.

 But if you have much older iPhone like iphone 4 then this feature wont work all smooth. Better still, try upgrading to iOS 12 if you can, which will ensure that your location is also sent to your local 000 centre if, or when, you use Emergency SOS.

If you have an iPhone 8 (or later), you activate Emergency SOS by holding your iPhone’s side button and one of its volume buttons. You can then call emergency services by either flicking the slider that appears, or you can keep holding down those two buttons to trigger a countdown. When that countdown hits zero, your device will automatically dial emergency services.

If you have an older iPhone (iPhone 7 or earlier), you have to tap your iPhone’s top or side button five times somewhat rapidly, and then drag the slider to dial emergency services.

How to make an emergency phone call without unlocking iPhone?

So if you are ever in a dire situation and the only iPhone in the area is one that is locked, and you don’t know how to unlock it, you can still make a call with it. You can’t make a call to your friend, but you can call emergency services.

The feature is available on the Lock screen of every iPhone. When you press the Home button to trigger the passcode screen, you can bypass the lock for two purposes: making an emergency call and accessing someone’s Medical ID information.

If you don’t have access to your own iPhone and there is a working one nearby, but its owner is unable to unlock it, you can still call emergency services.

• Press the Home button on the iPhone to trigger the passcode screen.
• Tap Emergency in the bottom left corner of the screen.
• Call emergency services in your area.

But here you can only call emergency services like 911, 999, or 180. It will not allow you to call a private number.

You won’t be able to use the phone to answer a call, so be sure to stay on the line with emergency services until someone arrives at your location.

How to access a Medical ID page without unlocking an iPhone

If you are helping someone that needs medical attention, and the person is unable to unlock his or her iPhone, you can go directly to the Medical ID page to find out important information about allergies, medications, and emergency contacts.

The owner of the iPhone will have had to fill out the Medical ID page in the Health app and added the page to the Lock screen. If you don’t see the Medical ID icon on the emergency call screen, you can’t access it without a passcode.

• Press the Home button on the iPhone to trigger the passcode screen.
• Tap Emergency at the bottom left corner of the screen.
• Tap Medical ID at the bottom left corner of the screen.

If the person has filled out the Medical ID page in the Health app, important information will be listed here, including allergies, medications, and emergency contacts.

How to call someone’s emergency contact from a Medical ID page?

If you are helping someone that needs medical attention, and the person is unable to unlock his or her iPhone, you can call one or more personal emergency contacts listed on the Medical ID page.

Again the owner of the iPhone will have had to fill out the Medical ID page in the Health app and added the page to the Lock screen. If you don’t see the Medical ID icon on the emergency call screen, you can’t access it without a passcode.

• Press the Home button on the iPhone to trigger the passcode screen.
• Tap Emergency at the bottom left corner of the screen.
• Tap Medical ID at the bottom left corner of the screen.
• Tap the call icon next to a contact.

You can call all numbers listed in the Medical ID page. This might be a good idea since someone listed as an emergency contact may know more about the person needing medical attention than the others.

How to tweak Emergency SOS’ settings to adjust how you summon help?

Pull up your iPhone’s Settings app, scroll down a bit, and then tap on “Emergency SOS.” If you’re using an iPhone 8 (or later), you can use the “Call with Side Button” setting to enable a modified version of the aforementioned shortcut, which allows you to tap the side button five times to start the Emergency SOS process. (Holding the side button and one of your device’s volume buttons will work regardless of whether this setting is enabled.)

Also keeping “Auto Call” enabled, which is the countdown that pops up if you continue to hold a side and volume button on an iPhone 8 or later. If you’re worried about triggering this accidentally, or prefer one final, physical check before your device rings 000, you can turn it off.

At the very least, you should make sure you’ve set up an emergency contact on your device (via the Health > Medical ID section of your Settings app). Once you’ve finished a call using the Emergency SOS feature, your device will automatically tell your emergency contact your location and continue to update them with your location for a period of time. You can cancel the first text if you didn’t mean to dial emergency services, but this feature is an incredibly powerful tool in instances where you need help, and need to tell someone where you are, but don’t want to make it obvious.

While you’re there, take some time to update your Medical ID, too. By inputting your blood type, at minimum, in addition to any medical conditions or allergies you have, you’ll be giving first responders valuable information (which they can easily access via your iPhone’s Emergency SOS screen). While you have the ability to remove this information from being shown on your locked device, given its usefulness in an emergency situation.

Change your Emergency SOS settings

• Go to Settings  > Emergency SOS.
• Do any of the following:
• Turn Auto Call on or off: When Auto Call is on and you start Emergency SOS, iPhone plays a warning sound, starts a countdown, then calls the emergency services in your region.
• Turn the countdown sound on or off: When Countdown Sound is on, iPhone plays a warning sound even in silent mode or when Do Not Disturb is turned on.
• Manage your emergency contacts: Tap Set Up Emergency Contacts in Health or Edit Emergency Contacts in Health.

Points to note about emergency calls on iPhone

• You can use iPhone to make an emergency call in many locations, provided that cellular service is available, but you should not rely on it for emergencies. Some cellular networks may not accept an emergency call from iPhone if iPhone isn’t activated, if iPhone isn’t compatible with or configured to operate on a particular cellular network, or (when applicable) if iPhone doesn’t have a SIM card or the SIM card is PIN-locked.
• In certain regions, your location information (if determinable) may be accessed by emergency service providers when you make an emergency call.
• Review your carrier’s emergency calling information to understand the limits of emergency calling over Wi-Fi.
• With CDMA, when an emergency call ends, iPhone enters emergency call mode for a few minutes to allow a call back from emergency services. During this time, data transmission and text messages are blocked.
• After making an emergency call, certain call features that block or silence incoming calls may be disabled for a short period of time to allow a callback from emergency services. These include Do Not Disturb, Silence Unknown Callers, and Screen Time.
• On models with Dual SIM, if you don’t turn on Wi-Fi Calling for a line, any incoming phone calls on that line (including calls from emergency services) go directly to voicemail (if available from your carrier) when the other line is in use; you won’t receive missed call notifications.
• If you set up conditional call forwarding (if available from your carrier) from one line to another when a line is busy or not in service, the calls don’t go to voicemail; contact your carrier for setup information.