Emergency services: how smartphone providers are gearing up to help users in danger

A recent operating system update on the widely used iPhone now allows users to rapidly press the lock button which will, in other countries, alert the nearest police station while in Malta it will alert the 112 emergency service.

Over the past few weeks, social media has been buzzing with discussions about how an emergency feature in the iOS 11 update could help countless women around the world contact the authorities should they find themselves in an emergency through its fast access.

It must be said that smartphones of various brands have been providing for quick access in different ways for users to contact emergency services; however, efforts by providers to continually improve access could potentially help many people in troubling or even dangerous situations.

The home affairs ministry has confirmed that the rapid lockscreen emergency service is available in Malta, but rather than alerting the nearest police station, as described on the Apple website, 112 Emergency Calls are automatically alerted instead, which are fully functional round the clock.

Asked whether this feature has sparked fears that people might alert 112 mistakenly, or that disingenuous calls could be made, it was said that this is already an existing scenario and that various features have been applied to the emergency line in order to distinguish real emergencies from the fake ones.

The Apple feature also includes a service whereby after the emergency call is made, the phone then sends out the users location every hour until it is manually switched off.

Malta’s emergency line has unfortunately been plagued with hoax calls in the past, with the police online portal even describing how the line receives about 660 emergency calls per day, with 65 per cent not being real emergencies.