To use Emergency SOS on an iPhone, press and hold the side button together with either volume button until the SOS slider appears, then keep holding to start a short countdown that dials your local emergency number. It takes about ten seconds to do for the first time once your contacts and Medical ID are filled in, and the whole thing works from the Lock Screen without a passcode.
This guide covers the current iPhone button combinations, how to set up Medical ID and emergency contacts before you need them, how to cancel a call you started by accident, and how to test the feature without actually calling 911. Menu names and options can shift slightly between iPhone models, iOS versions, countries and carriers, so check the Settings labels against what you actually see on your own screen.
Table of Contents
- What You Need
- Step-by-Step: How to Use Emergency SOS on iPhone
- Common Mistakes
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I test Emergency SOS on my iPhone without calling emergency services?
- Which buttons do I press to use Emergency SOS on my iPhone?
- Does Emergency SOS work when my iPhone is locked?
- What information can my iPhone share during an Emergency SOS call?
- How do I cancel an Emergency SOS call before it connects?
- Why is Emergency SOS not working even though my iPhone has service?
- Conclusion
What You Need
You need four things ready before Emergency SOS is worth anything: a charged iPhone, at least one emergency contact filled in, a completed Medical ID, and a working idea of which button combination your model uses.
A charged phone is the first requirement, obviously. Emergency SOS still runs on a flat battery for a while, but a phone that dies at 2 percent cannot call anyone, and that is exactly the moment it was meant to handle. Most iPhones have a few hours of standby left even when the battery is nearly empty, so keeping it above about 20 percent is the practical target.
You also need service of some kind, or an iPhone 14 or later for the satellite option. A locked phone is fine, which is the whole point. You do not need a passcode, a data connection or Wi-Fi for the standard method.
Know your local emergency number so you can recognise a mistake. The iPhone dials the right one for your region automatically, and in the US that is 911. Elsewhere it is commonly 112, 999, 000 or 911 depending on the country, and the iPhone sorts that out for you based on the SIM card and the region it was set up in.
Step-by-Step: How to Use Emergency SOS on iPhone
Set Up Emergency Contacts Before You Need Them
You add emergency contacts in the Health app, and up to five people can be set to be notified automatically if you trigger Emergency SOS.
Open the Health app, tap your profile picture in the top right, scroll down and tap Emergency Contacts. Tap Add Emergency Contact, choose a relationship such as spouse or friend, and pick the person from your contacts. Repeat until you have the number of people you want.
Those contacts receive an automatic message saying you used Emergency SOS, along with your location, and iOS keeps updating that location as you move so whoever is reading it can follow you. Related controls live in Settings, then Emergency SOS: turn Notify Emergency Contacts with Location on or off, and decide whether your location should be shared when you decline an Emergency SOS call with Share When SOS is Declined.
If you never fill this in, the feature still calls emergency services, but nobody at home knows what happened to you. Community advice across Apple discussion forums and r/iphone is consistent on this point: configuring it during an emergency wastes seconds you do not have.
Check Medical ID and Emergency Information
Medical ID is the health summary a paramedic can read off your Lock Screen, and it is separate from Emergency SOS but shares its screen.
Open Health, tap your profile picture, then Medical ID. You can add medical conditions, medications, allergies, blood type, organ donor status, notes, and emergency contacts. Tick Show When Locked so it is readable without a passcode, and mark anything you would rather keep private using the Hide When Locked option on individual fields.
During an Emergency SOS call, iOS offers to share your Medical ID with the dispatcher, and the dispatcher’s screen can read it back to you so you can confirm it is right.
Only enter what you would want a stranger to read in an emergency, and keep it current after any change in medication or diagnosis. Medical ID is a record of your own information, not medical advice, and it never replaces a real conversation with a doctor or pharmacist.
How to Make an Emergency SOS Call on Your iPhone
On iPhone 8 and later, including X, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, hold the side button and either volume button at the same time until the Emergency SOS slider appears on screen.
Keep holding after the slider appears and a countdown starts with a loud siren, and the phone calls automatically when the countdown ends. You can also release the buttons and slide the SOS icon to the right to call immediately rather than waiting out the countdown. If you slide past the SOS icon to the power-off slider, you get the normal shutdown menu instead.
On iPhone 7 and earlier, press the side button five times in rapid succession. A countdown appears, and you slide to call or let the countdown finish. In some countries and regions, five quick presses of the side button call emergency services straight away with no slider and no countdown, which is the Auto Call behaviour and is the setting most often responsible for surprise calls.
You can tell a call is firing by the full-screen Emergency SOS countdown, the repeating siren, and the outgoing call screen that follows. The phone also vibrates throughout, and on models with Face ID or Touch ID, biometric unlock is switched off until you type your passcode, so nobody else can cancel the call or read your notifications.
Share Your Location and Medical ID During an Emergency
Once the call connects, the flow is the same on every iPhone: the call goes to the local emergency number, and iOS offers to share your Medical ID with the dispatcher.
Tap Share to pass your health information across, or Not Now to keep it to yourself. Emergency services on both the phone and watch sides can request your location, and the same request is made for your emergency contacts, who get your position and a note that you used Emergency SOS.
Whether location is offered to dispatchers automatically, and how that request is worded, varies by country and carrier. Do not read the pause as a fault. If you cannot speak or the dispatcher does not ask, stay on the line and answer what you can, because a call with no words still gets you a location fix faster.
If you have an iPhone 14 or later and there is no coverage at all, the countdown screen offers to send a message through satellite instead of placing a normal call. That route needs a clear view of the sky, and the message tells responders who you are and where you are rather than connecting you to a dispatcher by voice.
Cancel a Mistaken Emergency SOS Call
You have a short window to stop it, and you cancel by tapping the X button during the countdown, not by pressing the side button again.
From the moment the countdown appears until the moment the call connects, tap the X in the top corner. On some iOS versions the control is labelled Cancel instead, sitting in the same place. The siren stops and nothing is called.
If the call already connected, tap End Call, then tap End Call again when iOS asks you to confirm. That second tap is the part people miss, and the call stays live until you do it.
One rule matters more than the rest of this section. If a real dispatcher is on the line, never hang up to cancel, and never stay silent to test them. Say plainly that the call was accidental, and let them end it. Dispatchers treat unexplained dropped emergency calls as a possible real incident, and an abandoned call sends someone looking for you.
Test Emergency SOS Without Placing a Real Call
Apple does not provide a dry-run mode, so the only safe test is to start the countdown and cancel it, which proves your settings without dialling 911.
Go to Settings, then Emergency SOS, and confirm the toggles match how you want to use it. Call with Hold turns on the side button plus volume button method. Call with 5 Presses turns on the five-press method for iPhone 7 and earlier. Auto Call, where it appears, is the one that removes the countdown entirely and is the most common cause of surprise calls.
Then practise the gesture on a device that is not in your hand, such as a phone lying on a table, start the countdown, and tap the X to cancel. Testing without dialling means using the countdown as your stopping point, never letting it run to zero.
Most people in the Apple community who test this at all stop at the countdown for exactly this reason. And if a real dispatcher picks up during a test, stay on the line and explain. It is an honest mistake and they would much rather hear it than not.
Common Mistakes
Almost every Emergency SOS problem on iPhone comes down to one of a short list of mistakes, and all of them are fixable in a few minutes.
Expecting every iPhone to use the same buttons. The hold method needs iPhone 8 or later. On iPhone 7 and earlier, five quick side button presses is the method, and if that toggle is off the gesture does nothing at all.
Leaving Call with 5 Presses on. This is the loudest complaint in Apple support forums, and it fires during ordinary shutdown gestures. Turn it off in Settings, then Emergency SOS, and keep only Call with Hold.
Assuming Auto Call means automatic dialling. In supported regions, Auto Call removes the countdown and the slider, so a slip of the fingers becomes a connected call. Turn it off if you want a chance to cancel.
Not adding emergency contacts. The call still works, but nobody knows. Add up to five people in Health, then your profile picture, then Emergency Contacts.
Filling in stale information. A Medical ID listing a medication you stopped taking two years ago is worse than an empty field. Revisit it after any change.
Cancelling after a real call connects. The countdown is your cancel window. Once a dispatcher answers, the only way out is to explain and hang up properly.
Reading the SOS icon in the status bar as a fault. That SOS means your iPhone has no carrier service, not that Emergency SOS is stuck or broken. You can still call an emergency number from that state, and you can restart the phone normally.
Running the battery flat. A phone that dies cannot call. Keep it charged, and know that a long press of the side button plus volume up, held until the Apple logo appears, force restarts any iPhone 8 or later.
Two safety habits cover most of this. Do the setup on a calm evening rather than in the moment, and rehearse the gesture until your hand knows it. People who have actually held the phone and cancelled the countdown are far calmer in a real emergency than people who have only read about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I test Emergency SOS on my iPhone without calling emergency services?
Yes, safely. Apple has no built-in test mode, so the safe test is to start the countdown and cancel it before it reaches zero. Go to Settings, then Emergency SOS, confirm Call with Hold and Call with 5 Presses match what you want, then practise the gesture and tap the X during the countdown. Never let a test countdown run to zero, and if a dispatcher does answer, stay on the line and explain it was a test.
Which buttons do I press to use Emergency SOS on my iPhone?
On iPhone 8 and later, press and hold the side button together with either volume button until the Emergency SOS slider appears, then keep holding for the countdown or slide SOS to call right away. On iPhone 7 and earlier, press the side button five times quickly. In some regions five presses calls immediately with no countdown, which is the Auto Call setting in Settings, then Emergency SOS.
Does Emergency SOS work when my iPhone is locked?
Yes. That is the main reason the feature exists. Emergency SOS runs from the Lock Screen with no passcode, which matters if you are hurt, if someone else has your phone, or if the screen is damaged. Note that Face ID and Touch ID are switched off the moment the feature is triggered, so nobody can cancel the call or read your notifications without your passcode.
What information can my iPhone share during an Emergency SOS call?
iOS offers to share your Medical ID, which can include medical conditions, medications, allergies, blood type, organ donor status and notes, plus your emergency contacts. Your emergency contacts also receive an automatic message saying you used Emergency SOS, along with your location, which updates as you move. How location is offered to dispatchers varies by country and carrier, so treat it as region-dependent rather than guaranteed.
How do I cancel an Emergency SOS call before it connects?
Tap the X button in the top corner of the countdown screen, or Cancel where iOS labels it that way, and the siren stops without a call being placed. You must do this before the countdown ends. If the call has already connected, tap End Call, then tap End Call again to confirm. If a real dispatcher is on the line, stay on and tell them the call was accidental rather than hanging up silently.
Why is Emergency SOS not working even though my iPhone has service?
The SOS label in the status bar means no carrier service, and the phone is otherwise working. Emergency SOS does not depend on that feature being available, so you can still call your local emergency number. The usual real causes are disabled toggles in Settings, then Emergency SOS, such as Call with 5 Presses being switched off, or a five-press gesture in a region where Auto Call makes it call instantly instead of counting down.
Conclusion
Start with the four things that take ten minutes on a quiet evening: add up to five emergency contacts in the Health app, complete your Medical ID and set it to show when locked, learn which button combination your iPhone actually uses, and run one countdown you cancel yourself.
That is the whole of how to use Emergency SOS on iPhone safely. After that, the two habits that matter are keeping the phone charged, and remembering that a connected emergency call is not yours to end quietly. If you are ever in immediate danger, call your local emergency number or contact a nearby person rather than relying on a guide to get you out of it.