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Accidental dialing of 9-1-1 on your iPhone or Apple Watch can be a nuisance, and even worse, render emergency services ineffective in your area due to excessive and unintentional calls. One user of an Apple Watch even reported that his device was constantly sending emergency SOS messages to his emergency contacts without him even touching it.
When this happens, contacting Apple Support should be your first step. But there’s something else you can do to make it harder to accidentally trigger emergency SOS.
How to Disable Emergency SOS on iPhone
You can easily make changes to settings to avoid accidentally triggering emergency SOS on your iPhone.
- Go to Settings
- Select Emergency SOS
- Disable the toggle switch beside Call with Side Button.
When this feature is enabled, five quick presses of the side button can trigger the feature – an easy mistake to make when you’re not paying attention. If you experience issues, it’s easier to disable it for now.
How to Disable Emergency SOS on Apple Watch
Apple Watch’s Hold Side Button setting makes it another notorious emergency SOS dialer – but you can easily disable it.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone
- Select Emergency SOS
- Disable the toggle switch beside Hold Side Button
In some cases, however, none of these solutions may work, and your device will continue unintentionally dialing emergency services. If that’s the case, it may be due to a bug in iOS, and you’ll have to wait for Apple to issue a fix.
FAQs
1. What is Emergency SOS?
Emergency SOS is a feature available in iOS and Apple Watch that automatically calls your local emergency service and sends your emergency contacts your location details after holding down the device’s side button or crown button. It also turns on your device’s torch so you can be found in a dark area.
2. How can I tell if my Emergency SOS is turned on?
To check if your device has Emergency SOS turned on:
- Go to Settings
- Select Emergency SOS.
- Make sure the Call with Side Button or Hold Side Button/Crown is toggled off (white).