It's time to talk about the placement of the SOS function

[sdwaltz]

I have two Apple watches - one is an aluminum one that I wear to work, the other is a gold sport that I wear when I get home.

This morning, when taking off the gold watch and turning it off, I accidentally pulled the slider for the SOS. It IMMEDIATELY attempted to call emergency services. No confirmation, nothing. When I attempted to cancel the call, the watch froze and wouldn't let me cancel.

Luckily, the watch had already disconnected from my phone and the call failed because I was already wearing my other watch. I was freaking out at the prospect of having to explain to the 911 dispatcher that I was fine and my stupid watch made the call.

WHY did Apple elect to put the "power off" slider and the "SOS" slider right next to each other? I feel as if it's a recipe for a flood of accidental 911 calls. If it can happen to me, it could happen to anyone.

Be careful when powering off your watch, because an ever-so-slight deflection of the finger can make an unwanted call to 911.

Hopefully they fix this in an update. Anyone else had this issue?

 

[consultant_on_journey]

I do not have one yet. But i hope you told apple about this.

 

[BarracksSi]

I haven't triggered it yet, but I've come close, and I can imagine doing exactly what you did.

At a hackathon earlier this year, I saw an idea for an app that would do pretty much the same thing -- automatically call emergency services with the nature of the emergency, the location, and any relevant medical history (drug allergies, etc). I was simultaneously bummed and stoked to see Apple show off the same idea.

But yeah, put in a feature request. I should do it, too.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/

[edit] As I was writing in my feedback, I realized that the inverse is also true -- one might accidentally turn off the watch when they intended to dial 911. Yikes.

 

[44267547]

I have two Apple watches - one is an aluminum one that I wear to work, the other is a gold sport that I wear when I get home.

This morning, when taking off the gold watch and turning it off, I accidentally pulled the slider for the SOS. It IMMEDIATELY attempted to call emergency services. No confirmation, nothing. When I attempted to cancel the call, the watch froze and wouldn't let me cancel.

Luckily, the watch had already disconnected from my phone and the call failed because I was already wearing my other watch. I was freaking out at the prospect of having to explain to the 911 dispatcher that I was fine and my stupid watch made the call.

WHY did Apple elect to put the "power off" slider and the "SOS" slider right next to each other? I feel as if it's a recipe for a flood of accidental 911 calls. If it can happen to me, it could happen to anyone.

Be careful when powering off your watch, because an ever-so-slight deflection of the finger can make an unwanted call to 911.

Hopefully they fix this in an update. Anyone else had this issue?

I was wondering when I would come across this thread. I agree Apple should make a separation of the two toggles side by side like this. One could easily, as you have, manipulated the emergency function.

And in Most cases, if your Watch would dial 911 by mistake and it connects to a dispatcher, they send an Officer every time, even if your being honest about the situation. I wouldn't freak out if it happens again, the Officer verifies no one is in danger other than what you explained to the dispatcher.

 

[ajneuman]

Ive accidentally hit the SOS button as well... I rarely turn the watch off but, I share your concern.

 

[lax28]

I don't turn my watch off that often, although I understand what you are saying, I just seeing it being not an easy mistake to make. The slide to power off is at the top of the list, the SOS is at the bottom and they are separated by the medical ID slider. If the two happened to be next to each other (one on top of the other) then I could see this being an easy mistake to make.

If calling 911, you just hold the button and it will call, no need to slide so the turning the watch off when using SOS is probably even less likely of scenario.

Of course all problems could be easily solved if Apple made the SOS slider go from right to left so it is opposite the others on the screen.

 

[jermy4]

I don't turn my watch off that often, although I understand what you are saying, I just seeing it being not an easy mistake to make. The slide to power off is at the top of the list, the SOS is at the bottom and they are separated by the medical ID slider. If the two happened to be next to each other (one on top of the other) then I could see this being an easy mistake to make.

If calling 911, you just hold the button and it will call, no need to slide so the turning the watch off when using SOS is probably even less likely of scenario.

Of course all problems could be easily solved if Apple made the SOS slider go from right to left so it is opposite the others on the screen.

This is what my power screen looks like

 

[TxWatch]

This is what my power screen looks like

What version of WOS are you running? Mine has the Medical ID in between your two buttons.

 

[lax28]

This is what my power screen looks like

Oh, I guess you have nothing set up in your medical ID. Which would be displayed on the screen for first responders after an SOS call is made.

If you go into the health app and set up your medical ID it will space out the power slider and the sos slider.

I didn't realize that, as I have had Medical ID set up on my iPhone since it was introduced before the apple watch was introduced.

 

[jermy4]

What version of WOS are you running? Mine has the Medical ID in between your two buttons.

3.1

 

[lax28]

What version of WOS are you running? Mine has the Medical ID in between your two buttons.

My guess, is if nothing is set up it doesn't display the Medical ID Slider

 

[jermy4]

Oh, I guess you have nothing set up in your medical ID. Which would be displayed on the screen for first responders after an SOS call is made.

If you go into the health app and set up your medical ID it will space out the power slider and the sos slider.

I didn't realize that, as I have had Medical ID set up on my iPhone since it was introduced before the apple watch was introduced.

I did have the medical id setup but when I got my series 2 watch I setup as new on both my watch and iPhone since my iPhone was jailbroken and I had a lot of junk in my backups. I completely forgot about the medical id stuff. I guess I thought that was saved to iCloud but apparently not.

 

[lax28]

Medical ID also is accessible w/o unlocking your phone as well, so if something happened to you someone could get that information from your phone.

 

[jermy4]

My guess, is if nothing is set up it doesn't display the Medical ID Slider

Bingo. Looks like this now

 

[lax28]

I did have the medical id setup but when I got my series 2 watch I setup as new on both my watch and iPhone since my iPhone was jailbroken and I had a lot of junk in my backups. I completely forgot about the medical id stuff. I guess I thought that was saved to iCloud but apparently not.

I believe Medical Id and health data only back up to iCloud, if you do encrypted backups. To protect that personal data.

 

[myfoneisdank]

This is utterly embarrassing but I'll share. Literally day 1 of Apple Watch ownership I'm at work after setting it up the night before and am screwing around with the watch. I did not have a passcode lock on it yet. I decided to see how the band comes off and on as I hadn't tried it yet. So I guess the first time or two you take off the band it's a little stiff. I'm janking it around trying to get it off, I guess pressing the side buttons in the process. Mind you I have the watch upside down so I cannot see the screen with the countdown slider. All of a sudden I hear "911 what's your emergency" come through loud as hell on the watch. I wonder how many other people have done this.

Yeah, apple's placement of this feature it ridiculous but I hope it helps someone that really needs it.

 

[enduro0125]

While traveling in France last month on my motorbike,I somehow activated the SOS function

My glove or riding jacket must have it the buttons just right.
My poor sister in the US almost had a heart attack trying to figure out why she kept getting texts saying my location kept changing.

After the fifth alert she called me.
I,wasn't able to answer as I was just entering the city of Nice and needed to communicate with my partner via our Sena Bluetooth helmet modules.

As soon as I checked in to my hotel I was able to contact her and set things right.
I wound up moving my watch to the right wrist so the buttons where away from wrist.

 

[Mr.Blacky]

While traveling in France last month on my motorbike,I somehow activated the SOS function

My glove or riding jacket must have it the buttons just right.
My poor sister in the US almost had a heart attack trying to figure out why she kept getting texts saying my location kept changing.

After the fifth alert she called me.
I,wasn't able to answer as I was just entering the city of Nice and needed to communicate with my partner via our Sena Bluetooth helmet modules.

As soon as I checked in to my hotel I was able to contact her and set things right.
I wound up moving my watch to the right wrist so the buttons where away from wrist.

If you have trouble with accidentally calling 911 by pressing the sidebutton, just turn it of in the Apple Watch app under "General"!

 

[enduro0125]

If you have trouble with accidentally calling 911 by pressing the sidebutton, just turn it of in the Apple Watch app under "General"!

It only happened that one time .
15 days on the bike and only that one "oops."

Not even sure if it was accidentally hit or some software glitch

 

[Bbafett]

If you have trouble with accidentally calling 911 by pressing the sidebutton, just turn it of in the Apple Watch app under "General"!

That is what I did as I didn't want to have any issues on it. I need to call 911 I can just as easily call using my phone. Wasn't worth the risk of accidentally calling. Good feature though for some.

 

[enduro0125]

If you have trouble with accidentally calling 911 by pressing the sidebutton, just turn it of in the Apple Watch app under "General"!

Thanks for that
After your post I looked at the setting and that must have been what happened
I didn't realize that long holding it would activate the 911 call

It is now disabled

That is what I did as I didn't want to have any issues on it. I need to call 911 I can just as easily call using my phone. Wasn't worth the risk of accidentally calling. Good feature though for some.

 

[merrazu]

This has been a problem for me. I accidentlly called 911 twice on my watch! The first time they called and yesterday they came to the house. So embarassing!

 

[consultant_on_journey]

This has been a problem for me. I accidentlly called 911 twice on my watch! The first time they called and yesterday they came to the house. So embarassing!

But it is good to hear that it works

 

[lax28]

This has been a problem for me. I accidentlly called 911 twice on my watch! The first time they called and yesterday they came to the house. So embarassing!

How?

If your sliding the sos slider by mistake then make sure you have medical ID on and the sliders are not next to each other. This will make it harder to make that kind of an error.

If your doing it by accidentally holding down the dock/power button, you should change your settings, so you can place crown and button away from your wrist, to call by mistake this way you have to hold for about 4 seconds, and 3 of which the watch makes an audible alarm. The audible alarm should prevent from accidentally trigger SOS this way.

Of course if all else fails, you can turn the feature off.