Your Android Phone Might Accidentally Call The Police, And Thats A Big Problem
iPhones and Android phones have an Emergency SOS feature that allows you to contact the police or other emergency services if needed, without having to dial a number. However, while this quick way to get help is useful and potentially life-saving, it is currently causing a lot of problems on some Android phones.
Speaking to the BBC, British police say the Emergency SOS feature was accidentally activated on some Android phones. It also appears to consume a lot of police time, with police in Devon and Cornwall claiming to have received 169 such random calls between midnight and 7pm on Sundays alone.
Worse still, as these calls are usually silent, it would take the police around 20 minutes to process each call, as they have to prove that it is not a real call.
So they encourage callers to stay on the line - if they know they called - and tell the attendant there was a mistake.
pocket problem
Why are these calls happening? Well, the Emergency SOS is triggered when you press the power button on your phone 5 or more times, so there is a chance that you accidentally plugged it in. Some manufacturers offer other ways to activate Emergency SOS, but these are used by default.
Emergency SOS isn't enabled by default on all phones, but some have it - we found the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, for example, had it enabled by default, while the Pixel 7 Pro l had disabled by default. This allows you to turn it on without realizing it.
Although these reports of silent calls come from British police, the problem is certainly not unique to the UK. Other European countries have recently made similar announcements and the problem seems to be present in the rest of the world as well.
Interestingly, Emergency SOS was added in Android 12, but it seems to have become a bigger issue in the Android 13 update, although the reason is unclear.
In any case, a Google spokesperson told the BBC: "To help these manufacturers prevent accidental emergency calls on their devices, Android is providing additional guidance and resources."
"We expect device manufacturers to provide their users with updates soon that address this issue. Users who continue to experience this issue should disable Emergency SOS Calling in the coming days."
imperfect system
So it looks like software updates should fix this issue soon, but we think the way Emergency SOS is activated is the root of the problem.
On the iPhone, this involves holding down two buttons at the same time and then dragging the slider. If you hold down the buttons but don't drag the slider, you should receive an audible alert before making the call.
It looks like the system is much less likely to contact emergency services, so Google might consider making some changes - perhaps around the same time as Android 14.
