Your iPhone has emergency tools. Apple added emergency features to iOS in 2014, giving the Health app a place for medical details and emergency contacts. These settings can expose key information from the passcode entry screen and alert people you choose when you use Emergency SOS.
Build Your Medical ID
To create or edit a Medical ID, open the Health app and select your profile picture at the top-right. Choose Medical ID from the list, then enter the basic medical information the feature provides, including your age, medications, allergies, and health conditions.
The Medical ID also includes an Additional Information section for details such as height, weight, and blood type. A Notes field gives you a place for other concerns, because medical information rarely fits into a tidy handful of boxes.
Two settings deserve attention on the Medical ID page: Show When Locked and Share During Emergency Call. Enable both. With Show When Locked enabled, anyone can tap Emergency, then Medical ID, on the passcode entry screen to view your details.
Share During Emergency Call lets 911 know crucial details without you having to share them. The setting handles information you may not be able to explain during an emergency, which is precisely when relying on memory becomes a poor plan.
Add Contacts and Configure Emergency SOS
You can add emergency contacts from the Medical ID page by selecting Add Emergency Contact and choosing people from your existing list. These contacts are used to alert those people and give them your location when you use Emergency SOS.
Emergency SOS uses the Side button and either Volume button by default. Hold the buttons for several seconds to trigger a countdown and a call to 911, so review the controls before an emergency turns button combinations into a memory test.
You can also enable Call with 5 Button Presses, which lets you press the Side button multiple times quickly to activate Emergency SOS. Call Quietly makes it easier to miss accidental activation of Emergency SOS, so the setting changes how noticeable that process is.
The Emergency Call slider appears on the power-off screen for emergency calls. That gives the power-off screen another emergency route, separate from holding the Side button and a Volume button.
Call After Severe Crash can help when you are hurt in an accident and cannot call yourself. Emergency SOS is not available through the Action Button on the left side of the iPhone, so do not assume that button controls the feature.
Emergency Bypass is a related tool, but it serves a different purpose. When enabled, ringtone and/or notification sounds can bypass silent mode, allowing those sounds through even when the iPhone is set to silent.
Take time to enable these features today before you need them; they could help save your life in an emergency.
That advice comes from Ben Stegner, the author of this article, published Aug. 16, 2026. The settings are simple, but their value depends on configuring them before the moment when configuration is no longer convenient.
