Emergency SOS is a feature that’s available on almost, if not all, smartphones today. Despite being a handy feature, there are still some issues that users experience. And recently the UK is warning Android users on the growing number of accidental emergency calls.
According to a report by BBC, the National Police Chiefs Council of the UK has sent out a warning over Emergency SOS functionality on Android devices:
“Nationally, all emergency services are currently experiencing record high 999 call volumes. There’s a few reasons for this (sic), but one we think is having a significant impact is an update to Android smartphones.”
Thankfully, Google has already responded to the warning and promised they would be providing guidance and resources to smartphone manufacturers. This way, they can help prevent unnecessary calls.
“We anticipate device manufacturers will roll out updates to their users that address this issue shortly. Users that continue to experience this issue should switch Emergency SOS off for the next couple of days.”
The UK is not the only country that has experienced an increase in emergency calls. Back in April, police services in Ontario, Canada also warned users about the feature. Early this month, the sheriff’s department in Minnesota has also asked users to disable the feature due to the same problem.
At this point, it’s unclear whether the best solution is to put more safeguards in place when activating the feature for the first time or it’s best that the feature be disabled at this point. Hopefully, the feature gets improved soon so that it won’t waste precious resources and time in answering an accidental emergency call.
Source: BBC
