Making emergency calls on iPhone and giving your location

Calling emergency services on iPhone

If you need emergency services anywhere in the world then your first choice should be to use the iPhone's Emergency SOS feature. This will use the correct number to call the local emergency services and in many cases it will share your GPS position with the responders. Your iPhone can also optionally sound loud alarms before making the emergency call. If, for some reason, the emergency service doesn't receive your GPS location and you are uncertain of your position then you may be able to use the what 3 words app during your emergency call to discover your GPS location as a set of three words. These what 3 words addresses are accepted by many UK emergency services; you will need to check the what 3 words web pages for other countries.

iPhone emergency SOS

Although a simple 999 call in the UK may automatically share your GPS location with the emergency services I wasn't able to confirm this with Apple or local emergency services. Apple advises that you use the emergency SOS feature to make emergency calls. All you need to do is to press and hold both the side button and either of the volume buttons for about a second. Release the buttons when the emergency screen appears or when VoiceOver speaks. If you aren't using VoiceOver, make the emergency call by sliding the red SOS  button to the right. If you are using VoiceOver, swipe right, probably three times, to the emergency call button and double tap. Alternatively explore a little below the vertical centre of the screen for the emergency call button. If you summon the emergency screen accidentally or to test the feature, you can locate the cancel button at the bottom of the screen. When you have finished your emergency call or cancelled the emergency screen you will need to enter your passcode to enable TouchID or FaceID to unlock your phone. 

If you prefer to initiate the emergency call in one step, go to Settings / Emergency SOS and turn on Call with Hold and Release. To make an emergency call press and continue to hold the side button and one of the volume buttons. As you continue to press the buttons a countdown will start. At the end of the countdown you should release the buttons and a call will be made. If you release the buttons before the countdown ends, no call will be made. Alarm sounds will start squawking about half way through the countdown and will stop when the call is in progress.

An alternative way to summon the emergency screen is with 5 fairly rapid presses on the side button. You can determine the effect of the 5 presses at Settings / Emergency SOS / Call with 5 Button Presses. If this is turned on then a countdown will start and an emergency call will be made at the end of the count down and the squawking alarms will have sounded. If you decide not to make the call you can use the Stop button near bottom centre of the screen. If Call with 5 Button Presses is turned off, 5 button presses takes you to the emergency call screen from which you can make the emergency call.

The Call Quietly setting may also be of interest. This would allow you to initiate an emergency call covertly with all alarm sounds and VoiceOver speech silenced when you use either Call with Hold and Release or Call with 5 button Presses. I suppose this might be helpful in a situation where you felt threatened in order to call emergency services and just let them hear the person threatening you and learn your location. But it does silence any alarms that might bring passers by to your assistance.

Whichever way you initiate it, the emergency SOS feature calls the local emergency number, often shares your GPS with the responders and automatically alerts any emergency contacts you have set up with a text message that gives them your location. They will continue to be informed of your location if it changes. Apple's documentation states that the emergency SOS is slightly different in India. For details of this and full details of how emergency SOS works, I recommend you read Apple's guide to emergency SOS.

If an emergency operator asks for your location and you need to use what3words, remember that you won't be able to open the app using Siri during a call so make sure the app is easy to find on your home screen or use spotlight search to locate it.

You probably won't, but if you test this feature and accidentally call emergency services please don't hang up. Let the call go through and then explain the call was made unintentionally.

Sharing your location using what3words

what3words is a free app that can help you to give your precise location to a third party. The app has acceptable accessibility for both blind and low vision users for most purposes. It works by assigning three words to every 3 metre square of land on the planet so it can pinpoint your location very accurately but be aware that GPS accuracy can vary with location and atmospheric conditions. I suggest that you download and install what3 words, complete its setup and then practice using the app so that it is familiar if you ever need to use it during an emergency. 

Giving your location using Siri

If you want to let another iPhone user know where you are instruct Siri to "share my location with Jim" and Jim will receive a Message showing your location on a map. Unfortunately this may not work if the recipient doesn't use an iPhone.

Siri can also speak your location to you but this may be misleading in villages in the UK since Siri currently speaks a house number and street name followed by the name of the nearest large town. A postcode appears on screen but is not spoken by Siri. 

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last updated 10 May 2026