Get help during an emergency with your Android phone

You can add personal emergency info to your phone's lock screen, like your blood type, allergies, and medications.

1. On your phone, open the Safety app .
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
3. Tap Your info.
4. Add your emergency info.
   • For Medical information:
     • Tap Medical information.
     • To add info like blood type, allergies, or medications, tap the item in the list you want to update.
   • For Emergency contacts:
     • Tap Emergency contacts Add contact and choose the existing contact you want to add.

If you're in an emergency situation, you can use your phone to trigger emergency actions like calling for help, sharing your location with your emergency contacts, and recording video.

1. On your phone, open the Settings app.
2. Tap Safety & emergency  Emergency SOS.
3. At the bottom right, tap Start setup.
4. If you need help, your phone can start emergency actions.
   1. To set up your emergency services number, tap Start.
      1. If you need to change the local emergency number, tap Change number.
      2. Once you have the correct local number, tap Next.
   2. To share your location information with and send updates to your emergency contacts, tap Start setup  Set up.
      1. Tap Add contact, and then pick a contact to share information with during an emergency.
      2. Choose what information to have Emergency SOS share with your emergency contact. 
      3. Tap Next.
   3. To share your location in an emergency, you must allow the Personal Safety app to access your location while using the app.
      1. Tap Next  While using the app.
   4. To have Emergency SOS start an emergency recording while still using your phone's other features, scroll down and tap Start setup.
      1. If you want to record emergency video, tap Turn on  While using the app.
      2. You can choose to share your video automatically with your emergency contacts after it's backed up to your device. Choose Share automatically after backup  Next.
   5. To start Emergency SOS actions, choose one of the options:
      1. Select Use touch & hold to start actions.
      2. Select Start actions immediately after countdown. If you want an alarm to sound with this option, turn on Play alarm sound.
5. Tap Done.

1. On your phone, open the Settings app.
2. Tap Display.
3. Under "Lock display," tap Lock screen Add text on lock screen.
4. Enter your message, like info that would help someone return your phone if you lost it.
5. Tap Save.

Important: You can use emergency broadcast notifications to manage certain emergency messages, like disaster warnings, threat notifications, and AMBER alerts.

You can turn alert types on or off, find past alerts, and control sound and vibration.

1. On your phone, open the Settings app.
2. Tap Notifications  Wireless emergency alerts.
3. Choose how often you want to receive alerts and which settings you want to turn on.

You can change the monthly test setting in "Developer options." Other settings on your phone could change when you turn "Developer options" on. Learn more about Developer options.

To turn "Developer options" off, in your phone's Settings app, tap System Developer options.

How Emergency recording works

You can still use your phone to do other tasks like to share your location with emergency contacts and get help from local emergency services while Emergency recording is ongoing.

Important:

• Video recording is designed for you to record emergency situations and related events to improve your personal safety.
• In addition to our Privacy Policy, when you use the features of our products to record, upload, and/or share video and audio content, such as recordings of an emergency situation, we may log use of the application, sharing with emergency contacts, and video link views and downloads.
• Recordings of emergency events may be disturbing to your emergency contacts and may cause those persons distress.
• Please use the video sharing feature carefully. It is your responsibility to ensure full compliance with the law when you use this feature, which includes any applicable state and federal video recording or wiretapping laws.
• When you use this feature, you acknowledge and accept the statements above. Learn about our Terms and Conditions.

If you open another app that uses your camera, Emergency recording will be paused. When Emergency recording is paused, your recording shows a gray screen. To go back to your Emergency recording, open the Safety app again or tap the notification at the top of your screen.

Emergency recording can record and save video up to 45 minutes. The quality of the video is about 10 MB per minute.

How auto share works

If you turn auto share on, a link to your video is automatically shared with all of your emergency contacts after each recording. If you don't have emergency contacts set up, your video won't be shared with anyone. If you decide you don't want to share the video, you have 15 seconds after recording to cancel sharing.

Sharing is dependent on your internet connection and there might be a gap between when your recording is finished and when video is uploaded and shared. Any emergency contact you share your video to can download a copy of it.

There can only be one sharing link active per video at a given time. Each link created has a 7-day expiration timer that is meant to protect your privacy. You can deactivate a link at any time. To refresh the expiration timer, deactivate the existing link and create a new link.

To deactivate a sharing link:

1. On your phone, open the Safety app .
2. At the top left, tap Your info Your videos.
3. Next to a video, tap More Stop sharing Stop sharing.

Tip: To refresh your sharing link, tap Get link to share.

Emergency recording is intended for personal use in emergency situations to keep you safe. Google will automatically disable an active shared link if it's being shared excessively.

How auto backup works

Emergency recordings are automatically uploaded to the cloud to help prevent data loss if your phone is lost or destroyed during an emergency situation. Uploading to the cloud requires an internet connection and may cost money if you're on limited data access. Uploaded emergency recordings can be managed any time with an internet connection.

To manage your videos:

1. On your phone, open the Safety app .
2. At the top left, tap Your info Your videos.
3. Next to a video, tap More Share or Delete.

Tip: If you delete a file, it's permanently deleted from your Google Account and this action can't be undone.

1. On a locked screen, swipe up.
2. Tap Emergency View emergency info.

To help responders find you quickly, your phone's location can be sent when you dial or text an emergency number, like when you dial 911 in the US or 112 in Europe.

If Android Emergency Location Service (ELS) works in your country or region and on your mobile network, and you haven't turned ELS off, your phone will automatically send its location to first responders through ELS. If ELS is off, your mobile carrier might still send the device's location during an emergency call or text.

1. On your phone, open the Settings app.
2. Tap Location  Location services  Emergency Location Service or Google Emergency Location Service.
3. Turn Emergency Location Service or Google Emergency Location Service on or off.

You can let your emergency contacts find your location and receive updates about where you are and your battery percentage. You must give the Personal Safety app permission to access your location.

To use emergency sharing, you'll need:

• At least one emergency contact
• An internet connection with Location Services turned on

Start emergency sharing

1. On your phone, open the Safety app .
2. Tap Emergency sharing.
3. Select who you want to share your real-time location with.
   • You can also add an optional message.
4. Tap Share
   • You can tap the notification banner to find the details of your "Emergency sharing."

Tip: If location sharing is unavailable in your country or region, a message will appear in the Safety app.

Stop emergency sharing

1. On your phone, open the Safety app .
2. At the top left, tap Emergency sharing Stop Stop sharing.
   • You can add a note to explain why you've ended the emergency share.

Tip: Emergency sharing will automatically end after 24 hours.

Managed Emergency Sharing settings

1. On your device, open the Safety app .
2. Tap Safety & emergency > Emergency sharing.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap Settings.
4. Select the information that you want to share with your emergency contacts during an emergency share.
5. Turn Multi-device location sharing on or off.

Tip: When Multi-device location sharing is turned on for a device, we will use the device’s location as a backup in the case you start an Emergency Share on another device, but that other device can no longer share its location.

If you want your phone to check on you and let your emergency contacts know if anything is wrong, you can schedule a safety check. For example, you can use a safety check when you walk in an unfamiliar area or go to a party. You must grant "While in Use" location permissions to the Safety app.

1. On your phone, open the Safety app .
2. Tap Safety check.
3. Select your Reason and Duration.
   • You can set the check at any duration for up to 24 hours.
4. Tap Next.
5. Select your contacts.
6. Tap Start.

Tip: If you turn notifications on for your emergency contacts, they're notified when a safety check is scheduled and has ended.

Mark yourself safe

When it's time to check for your safety, you'll get an alert for 60 seconds before emergency sharing begins. If you mark yourself safe, the emergency share will be canceled. You can stop the safety check at any time through the notification. If you don't choose one of the options in 60 seconds, emergency sharing will begin.

1. When you get the notification, choose one of the options:
   • I'm OK
   • Start sharing now
   • Call 911
2. If your phone is locked, you might need to unlock it.

If your phone turns off or loses signal, the safety check will remain active and will start an emergency share with your last known location at the scheduled check-in time.

When a safety check starts, if you turn notifications on for your emergency contacts, they get a text with your name, the duration of your safety check, and a reason, if you provided one.

Later, if you start an emergency share manually or can't mark yourself as OK when your phone checks in, Google shares a link to find your real-time location and remaining battery percentage in Google Maps.

Emergency sharing and safety checks stop when you stop it or mark yourself safe. When they stop, Google sends another text to your contacts to let them know it ended.

Use the Personal Safety app to send info to emergency services.

When you opt in to crisis alerts, you are notified in the Safety app about public emergencies or local crises, like natural disasters. Crisis alert notifications include a link to the Safety app's homepage where you can find extra information about the event.

Crisis alerts are available in all countries and regions and all languages. If your phone is set to a different language other than the local language, the alert may show up in the official language of your current location instead of your set language.

Google manages crisis information from official local sources. If a crisis is posted that affects your location, the Safety app notifies you. Google posts crisis alerts based on various factors, like internet connectivity in the affected area, the availability of official content from governments and other authoritative organizations, and the impact on the ground.

Alerts are typically available in the primary languages of the affected area and English. Learn about crisis alerts.

Your Android phone sends you alerts about nearby earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 and above using your approximate location. Coarse locations from Android devices are used to determine which devices will receive an earthquake alert. This information does not and is not used to identify or locate a specific user. Earthquake alerts can be turned off at any time in Safety & emergency Earthquake Alerts. Earthquakes are detected by ShakeAlert and by Android.

Important:

• Earthquake alerts aren’t supported in all areas.
• Not all earthquakes can be detected.
• Magnitude and shaking intensity estimates may have errors.
• You may receive an alert before, during, or after shaking begins.

These earthquake alerts are based on data from ShakeAlert, and are currently active in the following US states: California, Oregon, and Washington.

These earthquake alerts are based on the Android Earthquake Alerts System.

Where event impacts cross state borders:

• Regardless of the epicenter of the event, you'll receive alerts from Android based only on the system authorized to alert in each state.
• Alerts will attribute that state’s detection system.

Important: To get alerts, you must have Wi-Fi or data turned on.

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Safety & emergency Earthquake alerts.
   • If you don't find Safety & emergency, tap Location Advanced Earthquake alerts.
3. Turn Earthquake alerts on or off.