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Health & Wellness

Steps checked against official help pages. Last checked: Oct 19, 2026

How to Turn On Emergency SOS and Fall Detection

What this helps with: Setting up your phone, and your watch if you have one, so you can call for help fast and alert family in an emergency.

This guide shows how to use these features. They can help, but they can’t catch every fall or emergency. For questions about your health, ask your doctor.

In an emergency, call 911 (in the US). If you can, call yourself. Don’t wait for a feature to work.

First: add your emergency contacts

These features text your emergency contacts after a call for help. So add them first. Our Medical ID and emergency contacts guide shows how.

iPhone: Emergency SOS

  1. Open Settings and tap Emergency SOS.
  2. Turn on Call with Hold and Release. Turn on Call with 5 Presses too, if you’d like.
  3. To use it: Press and hold the side button and either volume button. Keep holding until the countdown ends. Your iPhone calls for help.
    • What you’ll see: Sliders and a countdown. Or quickly press the side button 5 times, if you turned that on.
  4. After the call, your iPhone texts your emergency contacts with your location.

Apple Watch: Fall Detection

Fall Detection works on Apple Watch SE, Series 4, and newer. It may already be on if you’re 55 or older.

  1. On your iPhone, open the Watch app and tap My Watch.
  2. Tap Emergency SOS.
  3. Turn on Fall Detection, then choose Always on.
  4. Keep Wrist Detection on. Without it, the watch won’t call for help on its own. (On the watch, it’s in Settings, then Passcode.)

What happens after a hard fall: The watch taps your wrist, sounds an alarm, and asks if you’re OK. Tap I’m OK if you’re fine. If you don’t move for about a minute, it starts a countdown and then calls emergency services for you.

Android: Emergency SOS

Steps vary by phone. Emergency SOS needs Android 12 or newer.

  1. Open Settings and tap Safety & emergency, then Emergency SOS.
  2. Tap Start setup and follow the steps. You can add contacts to share your location with.
  3. To use it: Press the power button 5 times or more, quickly.
    • What you’ll see: A red circle and a countdown. Depending on your settings, you may need to touch and hold the circle.

On Samsung Galaxy phones, the steps are the same: Settings, then Safety and emergency, then Emergency SOS. Press the side button 5 times to use it.

Android watches: fall detection

  • Google Pixel Watch 2 and newer: On the watch, press the crown. Tap Safety, then Fall detection, and turn it on.
  • Samsung Galaxy Watch: On your phone, open the Galaxy Wearable app. Tap Watch settings, then Safety and emergency, and turn on Hard fall detection. You need emergency contacts for it to work.

If something goes wrong

  • I called 911 by accident. Don’t hang up. Stay on the line and tell them you’re OK. That’s normal and fine.
  • I can’t find the setting. Open Settings, tap the search magnifying glass, and type SOS.
  • The watch thinks I fell, but I didn’t. Busy activity can look like a fall. Just tap I’m OK.
  • It doesn’t work with no signal. Your phone or watch needs a mobile signal or Wi-Fi to call. Emergency SOS on Android also doesn’t work in airplane mode or Battery Saver.

Official sources

Last checked: Oct 19, 2026

This is general help, not medical advice or personalized tech support. No phone or watch can detect every fall or emergency. Features vary by device, carrier, and country.

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