No one likes to think about the possibility of getting into trouble or an emergency, but it is always better to be prepared. While you learned about a fire escape plan at your workplace or safety drills at school, it’s equally important to be familiar with your iPhone’s safety and emergency features.
Your favorite companion provides various features to help you contact the proper authorities, send an SOS to your loved ones, display your medical information, and much more. So, here’s a rundown of some of the iOS security and emergency features you should know about.
1. Medical ID
If you are involved in an accident and are unresponsive, paramedics or other medical personnel can use the Medical ID feature on your iPhone to quickly access your health information. This lets them know about your allergies, underlying medical conditions, blood type, and other important details that can help them provide medical services quickly without worsening your condition.
That said, you want to make sure you have Medical ID set up on your iPhone which can come in handy in case of an emergency. Here’s how to do so: Go to Settings > Health > Medical ID and tap Edit. Add all relevant health information like your medical conditions and allergies.
You can also add emergency contacts so they can get your location when you use the Emergency SOS feature. Finally, 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.
2. Emergency SOS
In contrast to the example above, let’s say you are conscious during a crisis and can use your iPhone to call for help. However, every second counts, so you may not have time to unlock your phone and dial an emergency hotline.
Thankfully, your iPhone has a handy feature that makes calling for help fast and easy. 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 a call. It will automatically call emergency services in your area and notify any emergency contacts you have set up.
Alternatively, you can press the side button five times rapidly to automatically start the countdown and call emergency services when it ends. You can enable this feature by going to Settings > Emergency SOS > Call with 5 press.
So, what happens when you’re outside of cellular or Wi-Fi coverage? If you own the iPhone 14 or any iPhone 14 Pro model, it will attempt to connect you to local emergency services via satellite. This process takes less time during favorable weather conditions and with a direct view of the sky.
3. Share your ETA
Let’s say you are out for a long drive, going to an unfamiliar place, or visiting a friend. You can easily keep your family members or friends in the know by sharing your Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA). This is a convenient security feature to make sure they know how your trip is going and when you will be arriving.
To share your ETA, open the Maps app and enter a destination like you usually do. Choose your transportation method, such as driving. Then, tap Go and select Share ETA at the bottom of the screen in the route card. This will bring up some suggested contacts. You can also tap the Contact option to select someone else from your Contacts list.
If your chosen contact is an iPhone user, they’ll receive a map notification with your ETA. They can open notification to check your current location and keep track of your journey. However, if your chosen contact is an Android user, they will receive an SMS with your ETA.
4. Find Me
We bet you don’t go anywhere without your iPhone with you, so the thought of it getting lost or stolen is scary enough. However, if your iPhone does go missing, you’ll want to make sure you’ve done everything possible to locate it. Thankfully, your iPhone has an app that can help you locate and protect your Apple devices.
Here’s how to find your lost or stolen iPhone using the Find My app: First, if you own other Apple devices, you can use them to locate your missing iPhone in the Find My app. can do. Alternatively, you can access the iCloud website from any device with an Internet connection.
Next, you want to sign in to your Apple ID account, and you will see a map with the location of your device. You can choose to play a sound on the device so you can easily find it if it’s nearby.
5. Wipe data after multiple attempts
Since you go everywhere with your iPhone, it probably contains valuable personal data. So, if some bad actors have their hands on your iPhone, and you can’t recover it.