Police Warn About Dangerous Emergency Setting On Android Phones
A Metropolitan Police officer has warned that a potentially dangerous setting on Android phones is causing emergency numbers to be called in your pocket.
Android devices have a setting called "Emergency SOS" to make calling for help easier. When someone presses the power button five or more times, it triggers a series of emergency actions, such as a call for help.
Users can choose what this setting does. But by default, the phone calls the police number to report any problem.
Simply enabling the setting means that the 999 line in the UK is often called accidentally, according to Met Police Commissioner Dan Ivey. The button is pressed while people's phones are in their pockets, further cluttering up already overburdened emergency call processing.
A request was made to disable the feature to reduce demand. He described the setting as "problematic" though some users may choose to leave it on if they believe it will be used in an emergency.
On Saturday, Ivey said the Metropolitan Police had received an "unprecedented" 9,500 calls to 999 and 3,000 to non-emergency numbers. Of those, only 20% requested police intervention, he said.
"There is an issue with Auto SOS on Android devices, so we're asking for your help," Ivey described the issue. People have been asked to disable the feature by going to Settings and selecting "Emergency SOS." There, the feature can be disabled or changed to prevent a 999 call.
He urged people to call 999 only if they receive an urgent call from the police, if the blue lights are on, if life is in danger, if someone is using drugs or there is an imminent threat of serious violence, or if there is a serious problem. threat to an injured person. . Extensive property damage.
Ivey responded to a message from the London Ambulance Service, saying they too had received a historical number of calls. He said he had received 7,751,999 calls as of Monday, the highest number since New Year's Eve 2021, and also urged people to keep just 999 for life-threatening emergencies.
The iPhone also has its own Emergency SOS feature, but its design makes it less likely to activate accidentally. On newer phones it is activated by pressing the volume and power button, on older phones it is activated by pressing the power button five times; However, in either case, users must also click the slider to enable emergency calls.
