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Woman Saved from Sexual Assault by Emergency SOS on iPhone – Here’s How

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Emergency sliders for SOS mode. The emergency one is on the bottomI love Star Wars. My friends and I got tickets to see Rise of Skywalker as soon as we could, the Thursday night of release. It got out after 12, and we kind of parted ways. I’m not sure if it’s because it was late or if we all needed to go home and take a long, hot shower, rocking back and forth in the fetal position.

After looking at the Lyft prices, which, for some reason were abnormally high, I decided to take the train. It’s less safe, but Lyft sets shockingly high rates late at night anyway.

The train takes a while to arrive and runs slow. I don’t get to my station until after 1. It rained hard earlier in the day, and the movie theater we went to has weird hangups regarding skateboards (Regal, why?), so I had to walk about 15 minutes home. After 1AM. Lovely.

I’m tall, and a fast walker. People generally don’t keep up with me unless I want them to. So I noticed someone with a heavy step is keeping up with me. He makes the same few turns as me, and I start to get nervous. Actually, I had been nervous from the moment I heard his footsteps, if I’m being honest. I think he notices, or at least realizes how creepy it is to walk closely behind someone, and crosses the street.

Before that, I was holding my hand on my iPhone, ready to activate Emergency SOS. However, Apple changed how it’s activated on the iPhone 8 and later, something I hadn’t realized. Apple didn’t think it was important enough of a change to notify people.

Apple was very wrong. I was okay. Others might not be.

Here’s the story of how Emergency SOS saved one woman’s life, and to use it to save your own.

An Assault Stopped

A woman in Virginia Beach was about to enter an Uber. A man approached her and said he lost his iPhone, asking her if he use hers to search for it. After noticing that he didn’t seem to know how to use an iPhone, she realized he hadn’t actually lost his iPhone. The woman got her phone back and tried to walk away, eventually running from him, but he caught her. He pushed her on the ground and covered her mouth so she couldn’t scream.

But she knew how to use Emergency SOS. She activated it by pressing and holding the Lock and Volume Down buttons on her phone. The police were called and had her location. They could hear what was happening, and knew where she was because, when she got her mouth free, she mentioned she was by the water. Police rushed to the scene and stopped the would-be rapist as he tried to escape.

This is the very situation every woman fears when alone at night. But sometimes our technology can stop an assault in its tracks.

How to Use Emergency SOS

Call emergency services Here's how to make the call on iPhone 8 or later: Emergency SOS countdown on iPhone X Press and hold the side button and one of the Volume buttons until the Emergency SOS slider appears. Drag the Emergency SOS slider to call emergency services. If you continue to hold down the side button and Volume button, instead of dragging the slider, a countdown begins and an alert sounds. If you hold down the buttons until the countdown ends, your iPhone automatically calls emergency services. Here's how to make the call on iPhone 7 or earlier: Rapidly press the side (or top) button five times. The Emergency SOS slider will appear. (In India, you only need to press the button three times, then your iPhone automatically calls emergency services.) Drag the Emergency SOS slider to call emergency services. After the call ends, your iPhone sends your Emergency contacts a text message with your current location, unless you choose to cancel. If Location Services is off, it will temporarily turn on. If your location changes, your contacts will get an update, and you'll get a notification about 10 minutes later.I didn’t realize Apple had changed how Emergency SOS was initiated. I thought it was still “press the lock button five times.” That’s only true of older iPhones, the iPhone 7 and older. Since the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and newer, the process has been a bit more difficult. Instead, you’ll have to press and hold the power button and the volume down button. Then, when the sliders appear, swipe the emergency SOS slider. However, if you can’t get to the slider, continue to hold down the power button and volume down button. Eventually, it’ll sound an alarm, and start a countdown. At the end of the count down, it’ll call emergency services.

The Apple Watch works in a similar fashion, but only with the side button pressed. You can also use Siri to contact emergency services, if you’re hurt and you can’t get to your phone.

A Useful, but Broken Feature

I don’t like the new method as much. If someone is struggling with you, especially someone stronger than you, they could get your iPhone away before the countdown ends. I think Apple should instead go to a model where pressing the button five times activates a countdown where you have to swipe within five seconds to stop the call. That could allow you to throw the phone away from an attacker, so they can’t stop the call easily. Apple, take note. People who need this won’t always have full motor function, either due to a health emergency or an assault. Don’t make it so difficult to call for help.

Still, you should memorize how it currently works for your phone. That way, if you’re ever in danger, you know how to quickly call for help.

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