Key Takeaways
- Two US 911 platforms have announced they plan to use Apple’s Emergency SOS Live Video.
- This will allow iPhone owners to share live and camera roll video with emergency services.
- This feature will only be available when iOS 18 is released this fall.
According to The Verge, two 911 emergency calling platforms — Prepared and RapidSOS Unite — will officially support Apple’s Emergency SOS Live Video, which is expected to arrive on iPhones this fall alongside iOS 18. The feature will allow dispatchers to request a live stream during a call, as well as recorded media from the iOS camera roll. Since 911 services typically only support voice calls and text messages, the feature will give iPhone users a clearer picture of what’s happening in life-threatening situations.
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Both Prepared and RapidSOS Unite are focused on the US market, although Live Video has no inherent geographic restrictions and should eventually expand to other countries.
A bigger obstacle to global adoption may be cellular bandwidth and the popularity of the iPhone. Even in developed countries, many areas lack 4G or 5G speeds fast enough to handle smooth live streaming. And while the iPhone is hugely popular in North America, countries like China and India are dominated by Android devices. Perhaps some emergency services may decide that supporting iPhone-only features isn’t worth the effort.
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What is Emergency SOS?
Emergency SOS is an umbrella term for a number of Apple technologies. At its most basic, it allows users to simultaneously notify both personal contacts and emergency services, and share their location when possible. Others include fall detection and collision detection, the latter of which is only available on newer devices like the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8. iPhone 14 or 15 users can get Emergency SOS over satellite, which may eventually become a paid add-on.
Emergency SOS Live Video was first announced at Apple’s 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference. At the time, Apple didn’t say much about the topic, and we might not get full information about its launch until the company’s iPhone 16 event in September of this year.