Emergency dialling

[Williemeena]

Over the past 6 or so months I've managed to dial 999 over half a dozen times, despite my phone being locked. It's been in my pocket or bag and either gets woken being against my body or with a brush of my hand. How do I stop this happening? I keep changing my settings to try and stop it but nothing seems to work.

Any advice would be great, thanks

[IndiW]

I think this is a big headache with Android, I saw on few days ago it was in the news (UK) uk emergency services had informed Samsung etc and currently waiting for a software change /update

[Neo001]

Hi, It cannot be turned off unfortunately. You can change the number to a random number. Increase the countdown seconds to 30 secs and turn on Play warning sound.

Even if it gets dialed, it will dial the random number that you have set up.

[IndiW]

The advice from the emergency services is, if you accidentally dialled 999 don't cut the call, wait for them to respond and explain the error (it was a request from the police)

[PaulC59]

I used to get this a lot but since I have set a pin and fingerprint to unlock the phone it hasn't happened since. However it might vary on different models e.g on my S23 you have to swipe right to open the emergency call dialogue on the lock screen which probably makes accidental calls less likely

[Nightflame]

Quite a big issue, even made the national press in the UK:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12226235/Warning-Android-users-glitch-sees-phone-acc...

From the article:

"Google suggests that Android owners can switch off the SOS setting.

To do so, users can head to their 'Settings' menu before tapping on 'Safety and Emergency'.

Here, an 'Emergency SOS' feature should be visible, which can be switched off using the slide tool."

Not sure if this works or not, because my A40 is on Andrid 11 and does not seem to have this "feature"

[keith30]

It's a bug and is reported all round the world effecting Android phones, Samsung is aware of this and are expected to release a update to fix the issue.

[Badger42]

Depending on which A series you have, the SOS setting can be turned off under settings then safety and emergency. I use the A54 and mine is set to off.

[Gibbo201]

I have an s21 and past few months it's pocket dialled 999. I have fingerprint lock enabled and it still does it.