There is a new social media claim filling your news feed: A secret iPhone feature could save your life. But is true?
This post began circulating the internet telling people, “RETWEET to save a life!”
It explains that if you have an iPhone, you can hit the lock button five times and it calls the police. The 11Alive newsroom tried is out and for more than half of the people, it worked.
If your phone is updated with iOS 11 and you hit the lock button five times an emergency call will be made. So, we can verify that part as TRUE.
But what about the claim that it will send a ping to the closest police department?
11Alive checked with Atlanta, Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Dunwoody police and all of them said NO!
Their 911 centers have never even heard of this. So, we can verify that claim as FALSE!
11Alive did go directly to Apple to see how it works.
The security feature allows you to save a contact for emergencies and if you hit the home key five times, and swipe the “SOS” screen, your phone sends them your current location. Additionally, for a period of time after you enter SOS mode, it sends updates to your emergency contacts when your location changes.
You can add emergency contacts by going into your health app on your iPhone.
For more information on this feature, visit Apple’s website for step-by-step instruction.
