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Ask HN: Does your Android phone call 911 if you tap “power” three times?

8 points by everybodyknows ↗ HN
Recent update to my Nokia 5.4 (Android One, v11), phones does this, so now I'm nuisance-calling 911 every few days. Chat line says the misfeature was rolled out to "all Nokia phones".

Apple watches, I'm told, do this also -- maybe that's the source of contagion? Apple the Wuhan fish market of cell-phone pathology.

12 comments

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jonas-w
I think i can activate it somewhere but it definitely is opt in and not forced
jneumann004
I have a pixel 5 that did this accidentally once while charging at night. I got a call with a blaring ring tone from 911 asking if everything was OK.

I don't know what triggered it, but I think my phone does something similar to yours.

tfsh
I've just tried this on my Pixel 6 and it sounded an alarm, started a count down and opened a UI I had never seen before. I explored it a little more and am shocked at how much "hidden" functionality exists on my phone, it has the ability to start emergency sharing my location with emergency contacts, record videos and upload this to Drive, call the police with some type of automated voice stating my location incase I cannot talk. In addition it has a safety check up feature, which periodically checks if I'm okay (e.g I walk back late at night from the station), a lack of a check-in from my end would initiate emergency location sharing.

The Android team does a great job of introducing features, I just wish they were better advertised, as I am sure there are so many people who (unfortunately at some point) would benefit from these features.

jonas-w
>The Android team does a great job of introducing features, I just wish they were better advertised, as I am sure there are so many people who (unfortunately at some point) would benefit from these features.

This. Android has so many great features that i always find too late. While apple advertises their features so good that everyone, even non apple users know about it.

gtirloni
Settings > Safety and Emergency > Send SOS Messages
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Raed667
Under "Settings" I have an "Quick SOS" section where this can be configured. From 3 clicks to 5 clicks, or disabled. And the behavior can be to call 911 or to share location with emergency contacts.
mynameistodd
Disabled this, phone case would randomly push the power button 3x and I'd hear 911 talking. I think it happens often, they were nice about it.
is_true
It triggered the camera on mine at the second click
chirau
Is it phone specific? None of this works on LG phones