With new and evolving technologies that we we carry as phones, or at devices home and school that enhance our daily lives, how can we leverage these products so we can use them in the event of an emergency.
The following information below has been gathered as a starting point to help our campus community.
iPhones
Medical ID:
Go to Settings > Health > Medical ID, and tap Edit. Add all relevant health information, like your medical conditions and allergies. You may also add Emergency Contacts, so they can receive your location when you use the Emergency SOS feature. Lastly, enable Show When Locked under Emergency Access at the bottom of the page to allow access to your Medical ID even when the screen is locked.
Emergency SOS:
To use the Emergency SOS feature on your iPhone, press and hold the Side (Power) and Volume buttons until the Emergency SOS slider appears and slide it to the right to make the call. This will automatically call the emergency services in your region and notify any Emergency Contacts you’ve set up.
Alternatively, you can rapidly press the Side button five times to automatically start a countdown and call emergency services when it ends. You can enable this feature by going to Settings > Emergency SOS > Call with 5 Presses.
No cellular service, or Wi-Fi? If you own an iPhone 14 or higher model, it will try to connect you via satellite to the local emergency services. This process takes less time during favorable weather conditions and with a direct sky view. You can also look indevice products like the Motorola Defy Satellite Link that can connect any smartphone* directly to satellite for text messaging, check in and SOS.
*Must be running iOS 14 or later/ Android 10 or later
Find My:
You can locate your missing iPhone, or certain other Apple Devices in the Find My app. Alternatively, you can use the iCloud website from any device with an internet connection.
Sign in to your Apple ID account, and you will see a map with your device’s location. You can choose to play a sound on the device, so you can easily find it if it’s nearby.
Lockdown Mode:
Prevents anyone from accessing your personal data by limiting several features, websites, and apps. For instance, enabling Lockdown Mode will block some message attachment types like links and link previews. In addition, you won’t be able to receive FaceTime calls from people you haven’t called before.
To activate Lockdown Mode, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Lockdown Mode.
Android Phones (Google & Samsung)
Google Pixel’s Safety app:
The Personal Safety app lets you set up an emergency SOS, emergency sharing, car crash detection. This can be activated by hitting the power button five times in a row, though we recommend you only do that in a real-life emergency.
Emergency sharing is a longer and less-urgent version of emergency SOS, though it’s still only used in times of distress. There is no button shortcut, rather, it needs to be activated through the Personal Safety app on your Pixel.
The Pixel also has a feature called safety check. Safety check is a safety timer. If you don’t shut it off before it finishes its countdown, your emergency contacts will be alerted to your location.
Car crash detection. If your Pixel detects that you’ve been in a car crash, a countdown will start. If you don’t answer the prompt in time, the Pixel will call the authorities, alerting them of your location and car crash data.
To enable any of these and find useful demos:
- On your Pixel, open the Safety app.
- Tap the settings cog.
- Go through each feature and configure your preferences.
- Hit Demos to see each feature in action.
Samsung’s safety features:
Samsung has a settings page with some of the same tools found on other devices, such as emergency SOS and emergency alerts.
The emergency SOS mode does not automatically call your local authorities. You have to set an emergency contact as the recipient. To do this, you can create an emergency contact with your local authorities’ emergency number. You can also have an emergency message sent to multiple contacts. This action is activated by the side key > power button > and can be configured to three button presses or four.
Samsung’s also has wireless emergency alerts, which consist of extreme threats, severe threats, and AMBER alerts. Under a similar feature, you can also activate earthquake alerts, though the tool is limited to certain regions.
Setting up Samsung’s safety features is easy and only takes a couple of minutes:
- On your Galaxy device, head to the settings.
- Scroll down and find Safety and emergency. Tap it.
- Go through each setting and configure them to your preferences.