Sanne got the police at the door because of this problem in Android
Then you lie in bed with your partner, until the police ring the bell on a Sunday evening. Androidworld reader Sanne and her boyfriend experienced it on Sunday night. Police were unintentionally alerted by Android’s SOS feature. We explain how this could happen and how you can prevent such a situation yourself.
Police at the door
In an e-mail to the Androidworld editors, Sanne tells how she switches off her phone every night, but that it went wrong last night. It was her boyfriend who turned off her phone this time and put it under her pillow, but he also turned on the so-called SOS function.
“That has happened before”, but I was always fast enough to push the screen away within 5 seconds,” explains Sanne. “Suddenly my friend heard a sound and it turned out to be the police emergency center. We then neatly explained that we called by mistake and that it happened accidentally in a pocket. An hour later they were at the door. They thought they heard screams, possibly from a movie we watched.”
Many smartphones are at risk
Fortunately, the incident had no further consequences for Sanne and her boyfriend, but the SOS function is a part of Android that may cause problems for even more people. If you press the power button on your phone five times in quick succession, the emergency services will be called automatically.
The feature has suddenly been activated on phones from different brands, especially phones running Android 12, the latest version of the Android operating system. SOS can also become active after your phone has received the update to Android 12. Only few smartphone users are aware of the function’s existence. Sanne has already disabled SOS on her phone.
This is how you turn off SOS
Earlier, another Androidworld reader warned that he has unintentionally called 112 several times due to the SOS function. Androidworld then polled its readers and found that SOS is active on Android 12 smartphones from the following brands:
- Motorola
- realme
- Sony
- poco
- Xiaomi
- OnePlus
If, like Sanne, you prefer to disable the feature – and we can hardly blame you – you can do that by following these steps:
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Safety and emergencies
- Choose SOS
- Sets Using SOS from
In a response to Androidworld, Motorola has already announced that SOS will be disabled on all new phones of the brand. Is SOS active on your smartphone or did you end up in a similar situation just like Sanne? Let us know in the comments.
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