14 DAY TRIAL // An increasing number of users is accidentally dialing 911 by triggering the Emergency SOS feature on their Apple Watch and iPhone, according to reports, and the police appear to be well aware of the problem.
The most recent such example comes from Twitter user Jason D. Rowley who said in a tweet that he mistakenly called 911 with his Apple Watch when sleeping, and a report from The Verge points to more such misdials happening on both the smartwatch and the iPhone.
“Public service announcement: If you sleep with an Apple Watch on, consider turning off the Emergency SOS feature, or you too may wake up to 3 cops in your bedroom at 1 AM,” Rowley tweeted.
Emergency SOS is a feature available since watchOS 4 and iOS 11, and it allows users to quickly dial 911 when in danger using the side buttons. On the iPhone, for instance, you can call emergency services by pressing the side button five times in a row, after which the device displays a three-second countdown that lets you cancel the call. If no input is offered, the phone starts the call, assuming that you’re in danger.
Reducing the number of accidental calls
On the Apple Watch, the Emergency SOS feature can be launched by simply holding down the digital crown, so wearing it to sleep obviously increases the risk of misdialing 911.
The only thing that users can do is to add one extra step for making it harder to initiate calls by accident and disable Autocall in Settings > Emergency SOS, but this obviously impacts the feature’s purpose should you really be in need of calling 911.
Apple hasn’t said anything about any plans to change how Emergency SOS can be triggered but given that the number of accidental calls is growing, the company should really implement additional checks or introduce easier steps to prevent people from dialing 911 while sleeping.
Public service announcement: If you sleep with an Apple Watch on, consider turning off the Emergency SOS feature, or you too may wake up to 3 cops in your bedroom at 1 AM. — Jason D. Rowley (@Jason_Rowley) March 16, 2018