YSK, that on most smartphones, if you press the power button 5 (or more) times in quick succession, you can quickly call emergency services.

Some phones, you have to manually swipe on the screen, other phones, it automatically calls after a 5-10 second cooldown (varies by phone)

Some of you might already know that, this is more like a reminder that it exists.

Why YSK: If you don't think you'll ever need to make such calls, you should probably disable it to prevent accidentially dialing (or if it doesn't let you disable it, change the default emergency number to 0000000000).

OR If you are in an abusive household and think you might need to quickly call for help, you might wanna have it enabled, set to automatically call after 5 presses, and set it with the shortest possible timer, and remember this option in case you ever need it (and hopefully, the people with guns don't point them at you when they come).

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Note: if you accidentally do this, do not hang up. Calmly tell the operator it was ~~an accident~~ a mistake. Hanging up will send your info to them and they will call back to make sure there isn't an emergency.
Source: I did this exact thing when my phone lagged out during a reboot.
- Tell them it was a mistake, not an accident lol
  I had a friend of mine bump the emergency assistance button in a rental car, and when he told them it was an accident they were like "how bad is anybody hurt?" and all that
- Hanging up will send your info to them and they will call back to make sure there isn't an emergency.
  911 dispatcher here
  This will depend a bit on agency policies and technological capabilities as well as what emergency info you've filled out on your phone and unable to be shared in an emergency call
  At my agency we get a lot of butt dials, our policy for hang ups or open line calls from a cell phone is that as long as we didn't hear anything suspicious (someone yelling, gunshots, etc) we will usually disregard the call. If we have an open line we'll listen for about 30 seconds or so and if nothing sounds off we'll disconnect and continue about our day. If something sounds fishy we'll stay on the line/call back, and we'll send police to the area if we have a good location.
  There's a couple exceptions, like certain wifi calling or femtocell setups are treated as being from a landline because we have a solid address, so we'll always dispatch police unless you stay on the line and confirm that there's no emergency.
  And our discretion comes into play a bit. We might ignore 1 or 2 hang ups from the same number, especially since the calls may not even ring through to the same calltaker so it may not be obvious we've gotten multiple calls until we've gotten a good handful.
  Different agencies policies on that will vary. I know one of our neighboring counties will always send police to the area when they get a hang up whether or not they heard something suspicious.
  And as for the information that's shared, by default all we get is your phone number, carrier, which cell tower it hit off of, and an approximate location based on cell tower triangulation (which is kind of hit or miss, sometimes it's really accurate, other times it's basically useless)
  If we need to we can contact the phone provider to try to get subscriber info. That can take a while and can be hit or miss too, like if you haven't updated all your information with them, if you're on a family plan with other people, or if you're using a smaller provider that is really just reselling Verizon/T-Mobile/AT&T service, it can make it a little hard to accurately track down who actually owns that phone.
  If you've called recently, we can try to look up your information from priors on your phone number.
  If you've filled out your emergency/sos info, and enabled it to be shared with us, we can access that, It also often gives us access to a more accurate location for you, but otherwise we only get what you've put in there. If you haven't kept your name, address, emergency contacts, medical info, etc. accurate and up to date there, that's another stumbling block for us. We can sometimes work backwards from what info is there, if we have your name and age we can try to narrow things down, but if you have a common name it can be hard to tell which 27 year old John Smith is the one who called us.
  Do with that what you will, fill out your emergency info or don't depending on what you're comfortable sharing with us, consider how it might be used to save your life if you're, for example, in a car crash and too hurt to speak to us, or how an oppressive government might use it to track you down at a protest (from 911 we can't just access data on random people's phones unless they call us, and we can only request a ping on a phone number from your phone company under certain circumstances, and that's a bit of a process and all it returns is your location based on cell tower triangulation, which again isn't always very accurate. Police and certainly the feds have a bit more leeway than we do, though I don't know the extent of that, and if they set up a stingray or similar device I have absolutely no idea what they might be able to access)
  
  My dad was a dispatcher and if your center is anything like his you guys are overworked and overlooked way too often. Thanks for all you do!
  
  an approximate location based on cell tower triangulation (which is kind of hit or miss, sometimes it's really accurate, other times it's basically useless)
  I thought it was some kind of law that newer phones have to send accurate GPS coordinates?
  
  My local pd sends someone out even if you tell them it was an accident.
  This may only be for woman-type people, I don’t know, but the couple times I’ve accidentally called they always sent someone by to talk to me just to make sure I really don’t need them.
  Kinda obnoxious, since I would be very unlikely to call the PD even if they were needed (only call the cops if you are ok with the possibility someone innocent will die), but I guess good on them for.. being proactive.. I guess.
- I also did this while trying to turn the volume up with the phone in my pocket years ago

On iOS, 5 quick presses doesn’t call emergency services, it reverts your phone to a pre-login state and gives you emergency options, so you can easily call 911, but it’s not required to use it.
This is super helpful to know if you have biometrics enabled. So cops can’t hold your phone in front of your face to unlock it if you do this.
Try it if you have iOS. 5 presses quick, you’ll feel a vibration to let you know it worked so you can do it from your pocket.
- So cops can’t hold your phone in front of your face to unlock it if you do this.
  If you have android (and probably ios too) give your phone a quick restart if you have the opportunity to achieve the same thing.

Funny thing- my phone pocket dialed 911 the other day because of this. I let them know it was not an emergency when they answered.

I almost started hitting the power button before I read the rest of it. That woulda been awkward.
- Lol,
  I mean, it doesn't immediately call (for most phones), you get like a 5-10 second timer before it calls, with some requirinh a manual swipe.

Wow it actually works on my pixel.

Super cool feature when the button sticks. Had a pixel 3a with a stick power button. Barely anything I could do to prevent it from spamming 911 over and over again except hit the call cancel button as soon as the call appeared. Luckily was able to get the screen off quickly and disconnect the button.
- This is exactly why on most phones you can turn this feature off, which is also good to know.

Yeah that got automatically enabled on my phone after an update... Guess how I found out?

Had to try it ASAP, didn't work.
My phone lets me hold the button down, then gives the option for emergency call next to the power off, restart, and lockdown buttons.
- Hmm... what phone do you have if you don't mind me asking?
  Well, now you know your phone works differently, and know what buttons to press if you ever need to make that call one day (hopefully you never have to)
  
  It's a Motorola running (I believe) the most recent Android update.
- Mine opened the camera the first time, then emergency call the second time.

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