London Metropolitan police officers are warning of nuisance calls from Android phones to emergency phone lines, according to an article in The Independent. Intended to make it easier for people in trouble to get help, this feature, called “Emergency SOS”, when activated, calls a number that can be preset by the user. However, by default, it’s set up to call the local emergency line.
While a beneficial feature, the concern from police is the ease by which the call can be accidentally triggered – it’s set to activate when a person presses the power button five or more times, which can happen when someone is playing with their phone, or even when it’s still in their pocket. As a result, Met Police are recommending people either update or disable the feature. Dan Ivey, the Met Police chief superintendent, has noted the number of false or unintentional calls is further stretching an already frequently overwhelmed emergency service, which has seen unprecedented numbers of calls in recent months.
While a similar emergency feature is also available on the iPhone, the nature of it, which requires the user to also push a slider once activated, makes it less likely to cause nuisance emergency calls.
Source:
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/android-emergency-sos-police-warning-999-call-b2359083.html
