British Police Issues Warning on Android Smartphones’ Emergency SOS Function
The British police have warned that the new function on some Android smartphones can lead to false “soundless” challenges to emergency room services 999. The Emergency SOS function automatically calls the number 999 if the side button is pressed 5 or more times. Police leaders believe that this is one of the reasons for the record number of challenges for 999.
The police of Devonian and Cornwall (Great Britain) reported that soundless challenges occupy a line for 20 minutes. The officers called on people who accidentally scored 999 to stay on the line and inform the operator about the error. Only on Sunday, the emergency service received 169 false calls from Android devices.
Although the function was included in Android 12 in 2021, many reported problems after updating to Android 13 last year. Manufacturers’ sites provide instructions for turning off the function. The Google representative said that manufacturers who offer the Emergency SOS function on their devices should control how this function works on their smartphones. For this, Google provides manufacturers with additional manuals and resources.
Google expects that device manufacturers will release updates that will solve the problem in the near future. Users who continue to face the problem must disable the Emergency SOS function for the next few days.