Real Talk 12th March 2021 by Denise Curtin

Here’s How To Enable The Emergency Services Settings On Your Phone

The support and important measures to keep you safe when you feel vulnerable or in danger.

The sad news about Sarah Everard has affected us all this week in more ways than one.

A devastating tragedy that eerily highlights why we feel the need to run home when we’re too scared to walk. Keep our keys out when walking towards the car, and keep our music down when running in the dark. These are precautions we take – almost like second nature, because fear is forever a background noise. Fear that shouldn’t be ours to bear, but unfortunately, fear that is put onto us from seeing horrific stories like Sarah’s come to light.

Every single woman has a story of a time she felt unsafe. Of a time when she just wanted to walk home, of a time she immediately sent a text saying she’s arrived safe because there was someone waiting on the other side of that phone to hear she’s OK, to hear they can rest easy.

But it’s also important to remember why these behaviours are engrained into us from a young age, and it’s to keep us protected from the actions of others. Not because we pose a risk to ourselves when we walk home alone, but because we unfortunately feel the need to prepare ourselves against the threat of what someone else could do to us.

As mothers, daughters, sisters and friends, we look out for each other because we feel what they feel and our mission is to keep each other safe. We want to all feel protected.

What you need to know

If you’re walking alone, or in a situation where you feel there’s a threat to your safety, here’s how to access emergency services on your phone with the touch of a button.

Apple iPhones 

Press and hold the side button and the top volume button until the emergency services slider appears. Drag the emergency services slider to call emergency services. Alternatively, you can go into your settings, click Emergency SOS and activate “Call with Side Button” which will call emergency services when you rapidly press the side button 5 times. With this setting turned on, both above options still work for you when contacting emergency services.

It’s also important to create your medical ID on your iPhone. This can be accessed when your phone is locked if you were in danger or fell sick.

Samsung 

In the event of an emergency, tap the power button three times in rapid succession on a Samsung Galaxy phone. It doesn’t matter if your screen is on or off. A notification will inform you that SOS mode is activated. SOS mode will send your emergency contacts your exact location and an audio recording.

To add your emergency contacts, go to settings, go to the advanced features and select “Send SOS Message”. From here you can add recipients so they can receive your SOS message.

Huawei 

To access emergency services on your Huawei phone, press the power button five times in rapid succession. An SOS message with your current location will then be sent to your emergency contacts. To enable emergency contacts, go to privacy on your settings and click Emergency SOS, from there you can add emergency contacts.

After your emergency message is sent to your contacts, you’ll get a shortcut giving you the option to quickly call emergency services.

Aside from this issue being in need of a wider solution, these are small steps which will hopefully keep you and your loved ones feeling a lit bit safer and protected if you ever find yourself in a situation that feels threatening.

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