1 yr. ago • 98%

Android fixes Emergency SOS to prevent accidental 911 calls

9to5google.com 'Emergency SOS' on Android has added a way to prevent accidental 911 calls

As promised, Google has rolled out a way to fix accidental 911 calls on Android devices using Emergency SOS.

26 comments

My touch screen randomly disabled itself and when I attempted to shut my phone off, it instead triggered a 911 call.

The only way to stop it? Swiping right on the touch screen.

I was just a bit frustrated and had no idea 5 taps triggered emergency calls. What a terrible event. Q.Q

34
- I too was having screen issues. Once i had accidentally started the call, I waited for them to answer, explained what happened, and apologized. I then stopped fuckin' around with my broken ass phone.
  
  14
- That option is opt-in on my Pixel, when i read how it works i noped the fuck out
  
  4
Something that makes “accidental” emergency calls should have been caught in quality testing and should never have shipped.

28
- Meh, it's probably phones with very loose power buttons who are the culprit. I don't think my current phone has gotten its power button accidentally pressed even once and I keep it in my pocket pretty much 16/7 [not while sleeping tho].
  
  8
  
  I use my pockets to hold stuff. That stuff has triggered emergency mode on my phone at least five times so far this year while driving. You know, the one time I shouldn't be futzing with a phone to turn off the blaring alarm to avoid calling five-o
  
  8
  
  It's quite easy to accidentally do that when trying to adjust the volume without looking.
  
  1
Good, this happened to me! I had my phone in the cup holder of my car while driving down a dirt road and bumps pressed the power enough to make it emergency call 911. It scared the shit out of me cause the phone also starting make a horrible alarm/siren sound.

23
- It happened to me but I was in the shower. My power button jammed. 911 attempted to even call me back, I feel sorry for wasting their time.
  
  6
- Yeah, accidentally got the alarm too. I think it started a countdown to actually dialing 911, but didnt make it to 0 before i cancelled it. Well, I hope thats what it was anyways. Freaked me out.
  
  Then I started thinking about if it did that when I was actually in trouble. I mean, if i was being held at gunpoint, I don't think I want a giant alarm going off. I worry that would be a great way to get myself shot.
  
  But, then I was ultimately thankful for it, in the circumstance at least, cause then it definitely would have dialed 911 and wouldn't have known...
  
  I still wish there was a way to call silently though. Or, maybe there is, but im not gonna purposefully get to the point where I could find out.
  
  6
  
  There is. Check your settings. You can turn off the alarm. And at least on pixels, you can have it show buttons on the screen to ask for police, fire or ambulance.
  
  3
I triggered it while driving when I tried to increase volume on my phone through the pocket. Accidentally pressed power button and almost shat myself due to rhe 911 call and siren sound through the car radio.

15
- Where did the siren sound come from? Are they making paramedics work double duty as dispatchers now?
  
  1
I understand that perfect detection isn't possible, but I'm not sure that I like that the fix is to increase the amount of human interaction required during an actual emergency.

14
- I'm sure my phone dialing 911 four times by itself from my pocket while working isn't a good thing either.
  
  17
- Well, it's an option.
  
  You can decide to leave it set to countdown + calling without further interaction.
  
  3
I keep my phone in my back pocket. I wear a shoulder bag. Sometimes when I'm walking start hearing dialing noises as my shoulder bag bonks against my butt. I pull out the phone and find it at the emergency dialer.

12
Just reloaded a phone with Lineage, and it lows you to disable this nonsense.

I get the idea behind emergency call feature not being behind the lock screen, but pretty much everyone has their own phone these days (or two). I'm not likely to need to grab someone else's phone to call 911

8
- You can turn it off on normal android lmao
  
  3
Thank goodness, every time my baby gets a hold of my phone this ends up happening 🤪

7
Samsung allows turning the countdown into a simple slider (eg press 5 times then slide right to call 112 and send sms with your photos and location to all of your relatives)

5
Google does the bare minimum.

3
This kind of behavior should be illegal

-4
- I mean if it was intentional. I don't think a single person out there is actively and purposely trying to code 911 not working.
  
  6

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