How to turn off SOS emergency on iPhone

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It's a helpful feature, but not when you trigger it accidentally

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Emergency SOS is a helpful iPhone tool when it works at the proper time, but if it keeps accidentally being triggered when it's mounted in your car or thrown around in your backpack, it can be pretty annoying. 

Luckily, you can turn off a few settings that automatically trigger SOS emergencies and still keep the ability to manually send out an SOS. Learning how to turn off SOS emergency on iPhone is straightforward, and it's easy to reverse the settings you turn off if you ever change your mind.

How to disable SOS emergency on iPhone

Emergency SOS can't be completely turned off on iPhone because it's a safety feature, but you can disable the various ways to trigger it.

1. Open your Settings app.

2. Find the Emergency SOS menu option.

3. Consider which situations might be triggering Emergency SOS on your iPhone, and toggle off as many options here as you'd like to.

Turning off Call with Hold and Release disables the ability to trigger an SOS alert by holding down the side button and either volume button for a set period of time, and turning off Call with 5 Button Presses prevents your iPhone from sending an alert after rapidly pressing the side button five times.

If you have an iPhone 14 or newer, you can also toggle off Call After Severe Crash to prevent accidental calls during a plane landing or a bumpy car ride with a mounted phone. Of course, this can be an incredibly helpful feature if you get into a car accident, so you might try seeing if accidental SOS alerts stop after toggling off only Call with Hold and Release and Call with 5 Button Presses before turning off this crash detection feature.

With some SOS triggers turned off, your phone hopefully won't accidentally send out emergency messages and call the cops anymore. After you've toggled off these options, you can still trigger an SOS emergency by holding the multifunction button and sliding the Emergency SOS slider when it pops up on your screen. 

If you see an "SOS Only" message on your screen, that's a different issue. Here's what this SOS message means and how to fix it.

Sarah Chaney
Sarah Chaney
Contributing Writer

Sarah Chaney is a freelance tech writer with five years of experience across multiple outlets, including Mashable, How-To Geek, MakeUseOf, Tom’s Guide, and of course, Laptop Mag. She loves reviewing the latest gadgets, from inventive robot vacuums to new laptops, wearables, and anything PC-related. When she's not writing, she's probably playing a video game, exploring the outdoors, or listening to her current favorite song or album on repeat.