In a nightmarish world of political upheaval and declining social welfare, you might be called to participate in public protest. If you find yourself concerned about your safety or end up in a dangerous situation of your own, you can quickly and/or discretely make an emergency call using a simple gesture.

As I mentioned in Pushing Buttons, your iPhone’s Side Button has a number of functions. One of these is the ability to initiate an emergency call and there are a few settings related to this.

Client Notes

Last week, I gave Nancy the tools and confidence to locate a missing photo library. I also helped Vita make the decision to buy a new Mac while enabling Rachelle to keep hers working a bit longer. Plus, I taught Estella some triage shortcuts for cleaning her files and email.

iPhone Emergency SOS Settings

Emergency SOS Call Settings

In Settings > Emergency SOS, an animation shows how to initiate an emergency call. On most devices, you can hold the Side Button and either volume button, and then use the slider to manually make the call.

There are also two approaches for automated calls, each of which you can choose to enable:

  1. Call with Hold and Release, wherein you continuously hold the Side Button and a volume button. This begins a countdown and alarm. Continue holding until the countdown expires and iPhone calls emergency services.
  2. Call with 5 Button Presses, wherein you rapidly press the Side Button five times to begin a countdown and alarm. After the countdown, iPhone makes the call. To dismiss, tap Stop and then Stop Calling.

When you use any of these gestures, biometrics are temporarily disabled and you must enter your passcode again to reenable them.

iPhone Emergency SOS Contacts Settings

Keep Quiet in an Emergency

If you’d rather your iPhone didn’t make noise while you’re (discretely) calling about an emergency situation, toggle Call Quietly.

When you make an Emergency SOS call, contacts listed on this settings pane will also receive a text message alert with your status and location.

Have you made an emergency call before? Will you remember these gestures when discretion is worthwhile, or when you can’t otherwise enter a number?