Those High Tech Emergency SOS Features On Your Phone: They Work!

So, the other evening, I fell asleep in my recliner while watching television and woke up in the middle of the night. Usually, I grab my phone and a bottle of water and take them into the bedroom, put them on the bedside table, then take my night meds and brush my teeth before settling into bed. For whatever reason, I found myself toting my phone with me as I did my nightly routine, accidentally hit the correct sequence of buttons, and activated my phone's Emergency SOS features. On my iPhone, they work impressively well.

As I lay in my bed, I could hear the phone buzzing, like someone was calling. Then I noticed it had gone into emergency mode and dialed 911. In my half-awake state, I tried to get it out of that mode, checked to see who called, and, being a Warrensburg phone number and having some sense of how 911 works, thought it might be a dispatcher trying to reach me.

That's precisely what it was: Johnson County Dispatch trying to reach me to confirm I either needed help or that it was a mistake. I talked to the dispatcher on the line, told her what happened, and that everything was OK. She told me she'd put a note in their system. After getting off the phone, I tried to get myself back to sleep, a little nervous that a police officer might be banging on my door a few minutes later, not having got the update from dispatch.

I thought that was it until the following day, at about 7:00 AM CST, when I got a text from my Mom that sounded urgent, asking me if I was OK. If I trigger my phone's Emergency SOS services, it sends my emergency contact, in this case, my Mom, a text alert saying I called emergency services and a map showing my location.

That was something I didn't know would happen. If I did, I would have dropped my Mom a text after I got off the phone with Johnson County Central Dispatch and let her know it was the equivalent of a butt dial. Mom was concerned, but after explaining what happened to her, we had a great conversation and caught up.

Regarding the Emergency SOS service on my phone, I'm glad it worked how it was supposed to. It was an impressive show of tech.

There's a good chance your smartphone comes with Emergency SOS services, allowing you to contact emergency services quickly and provide them with your location.

According to ChatGPT, some of the more popular phone brands that offer this service are Apple's iPhone series, any iPhone 8 or later, Most Samsung Galaxy devices, including the Galaxy S Series, Note series, and some A-Series models, as well as the Galaxy S24, S23, and S22, and Google's Pixel 4 and later phones. Many modern Motorola, One Plus, and Android smartphones also include the feature.