People are just realising iPhone’s ‘5 tap trick’ could save your life – but you need to turn it on first

ALL iPhone owners can activate a clever trick that can save your life in an emergency.

Better yet, it only takes a few seconds for it to be permanently on.

2

The “Five Tap” trick works with Apple’s Emergency SOS feature.

It is designed to make contacting emergency responders as easy as possible.

And it works even if you don’t know the local emergency number.

What is Emergency SOS?

With Apple Emergency SOS, you can quickly call local emergency services.

In some countries, your location information will also be shared with them.

It is also possible to add emergency contacts to your SOS settings.

“After an emergency call ends, your iPhone notifies your emergency contacts with a text message unless you cancel,” Apple explained.

“Your iPhone will broadcast your current location, and after entering SOS mode, your emergency contacts will receive updates for a period of time if your location changes.”

If you have an iPhone 14, it is also possible to use Emergency SOS via satellite to send SMS to the emergency services, even without a phone signal or WiFi.

What is the “5-tap” trick?

Typically, to launch an emergency SOS on an iPhone 8 or later, you need to hold down the side button and either volume button.

It’s easy to forget – and in some situations it may not even be possible.

Once you’ve done that, drag the slider to call emergency services – or just hold the buttons during a countdown.

However, you can also toggle the feature to make an SOS emergency call by pressing the side button five times.

You can still use the regular method even with the “5-Tap” trick enabled.

To enable the feature, go to Settings > Emergency SOS.

Then you should make sure that “5-key ring” is enabled.

If you have an iPhone 7 or earlier, the default is to quickly press the side or top button five times.

Another useful option to set up is Call Quietly.

“Alerts, flashes, and VoiceOver are muted when you use hold-and-release or 5 key presses to make an emergency call,” Apple explained.

This can be useful in a situation where you secretly want to call emergency services.

And on newer iPhone models, you can turn on “Call After Serious Crash,” which automatically detects when you’ve been in a car crash.

2