Emergency calls and contacts, medical records… We’ll explain everything you need to set up to allow your iPhone to save you in the event of mortal danger.
It’s a situation that we hope you never have to experience: finding yourself in mortal danger and having an urgent need to call for help. For this, everyone knows the usual reflex which consists of calling 112, the European emergency number. But did you know that you can configure your iPhone to provide all the necessary information to rescuers if they need to come to your aid.
Dial emergency call
Did you know first of all that the iPhone can, in all circumstances, call the emergency services? Indeed, whether the iPhone is locked or not, the emergency call will work! It doesn’t matter whether you have a network or not, since the emergency call also works without a cellular network. To activate the emergency call, you have several options. But first of all, you have to activate the option in your settings.
In the app Settings from the iPhone, go to the menu Emergency call. By default, the option Call on hold is activated. This is one of the first possibilities to activate the emergency call. Press the standby button and the volume down for 3 seconds, then hold both buttons down during the 8-second countdown that will activate.
Another option, which this time is not enabled by default, is to do a Call with 5 presses. Thus, press 5 times very quickly on the standby button to obtain there also a countdown of 8 seconds, at the end of which the iPhone will contact the emergency services. Once help is called, your iPhone will automatically send a text message to your saved emergency contacts. Emergency contacts that will be added to your medical file.
Create your medical file
When rescuers come to help you, they will need to know a lot of information regarding you. The treatments you follow, your allergies, potential medical problems or your blood type, the medical file contains a lot of very important information. You can also indicate whether you are an organ donor or not.
First, you need to go to the application Settings then go down to the tab Health. Then press the button Medical form. The iPhone will then offer you to create your medical file by filling in all the data concerning you. Rest assured, according to Apple, this data is absolutely not used for commercial purposes by Apple.
Once your medical file has been created, all you have to do is go to the app Health then press your profile logo in the top right to find it.
You can also make your medical file accessible to everyone even when your iPhone is locked. By pressing Modifier in the top right, you can choose to leave your medical file accessible to everyone, even when your iPhone is locked.
To access it, go to the lock screen where you will enter your code, then press Emergency at the bottom left. You will then see your medical file and the coordinates of the emergency contacts.
Configure emergency contacts
If you fall into a coma, emergency services need to know who to contact. Fortunately, your medical file can directly inform them regarding this. But for that, you must have previously added their contact details.
When you are on your medical file page, press Modifier top right. Scroll down to the bottom of your file to see the emergency contacts. You can select as many as you want. By adding one, the iPhone will automatically send you back to your contact list. Choose one and then indicate the relationship you have with this person.