iPhone & Emergency Preparedness

Your iPhone can be a valuable tool for personal safety and emergency preparedness. Whether it be making life-saving emergency calls, alerting family and friends if you are in trouble or providing critical health information if you are unable, the iPhone can be a difference maker during unforeseen circumstances.

Have an Android phone? Head over to our Android and Emergency Preparedness page.

Prepare for an emergency

Adding emergency contacts lets you use your phone to quickly call someone who can help if you get lost or hurt. You can call or text your contacts without having to unlock your phone, saving time for you and the first responders trying to help you.

Add an emergency contact

Open the Health app.
Tap your profile picture.
Tap Medical ID.
Scroll down and tap Emergency Contacts.
Tap (Add or Edit).
Tap + Add Emergency Contact.
Choose a person from your contacts list.
Choose a relationship.
Tap Done.

iOS emergency contact screen

The Medical ID feature on your iPhone stores important details about your health like if you're allergic to something or if you need special medicine. Once you add your medical information it becomes available from your phone's lock screen. This information is important to share with first responders and having this information on your phone helps them take care of you.

Add your medical information

Open the Health app.
Tap your profile picture.
Tap Medical ID.
Tap Get Started.
Add your name and date of birth, then tap Done.
Add your medical information.
Tap Done.

iOS Medical ID screen

Government alerts, which are enabled by default, notifies you about natural disasters or local emergencies.

Choose which alerts to receive

Go to settings and tap Notifications.
Scroll down to Government Alerts.
Turn on or off the alerts you would like to receive.

ios Notifications screen

Get help in an emergency

There are two ways to activate Emergency SOS on your iPhone.

Press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons until you see the Emergency Call slider. Slide the slider to the right to call emergency services.
Press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons until you see a countdown start and hear an alert. Release the buttons when the countdown finishes.

Your phone will:

Call emergency services and share your location (enabled by default)
Share your information with your trusted emergency contacts (must be enabled)

No setup required:

ios emergency sos

Usually, you call 911 on the phone, but sometimes you might not be able to talk. If you can’t talk, like if you're too scared or if you need to be quiet, texting 911 also lets you get help quickly.

How to Text 911

Always call 911 if you can. Text only if you can't talk or it isn't safe to talk.
To text 911 open the texting app on your phone, just like when you send a message to your friends or family. Instead of typing a name, you type "911."
When texting 911 you tell the operator what’s wrong and where you are. For example, you might type, “There’s a fire at my house at 123 Main Street.”

Texting 911 is not available everywhere so it is important to check availability where you live in Colorado.

The following Colorado counties do not currently support sending texts to 911:

Baca
Bent
Crowley
Gilpin: The city of Blackhawk allows texting 911 but the surrounding areas do not.
Huerfano
Kiowa

If you text 911 in a place that does not support text to 911, y ou will receive a reply like the one below.

automated reply. Please make a voice call to 911. There is no text to 911 available at this time.

Take Action

pdf

Make a family communication plan

Record your family's medical and contact information (pdf) and where to meet in an emergency.

Use your phone wisely during an emergency

Texting your contacts is best! Keep voice calls short.
Conserve your battery
Have back up batteries and chargers.
If possible, use email and social media to communicate that you are OK.
If you place a call to emergency services by mistake, do not hang up. Tell the emergency operator that the call was accidental and that you do not need assistance.

Signup for emergency alerts

Stay informed before, during and after a disaster by signing up for emergency alerts through your Colorado county.

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iPhone & Emergency Preparedness

Prepare for an emergency

Add an emergency contact

Add your medical information

Choose which alerts to receive

Enable crash detection

Get help in an emergency

No setup required:

How to Text 911

Take Action

Make a family communication plan

Use your phone wisely during an emergency

Signup for emergency alerts

Center for Inclusive Design and Engineering (CIDE)

iPhone & Emergency Preparedness

Prepare for an emergency

Emergency Contacts

Medical Information

Government Alerts

Car Crash Detection

Get help in an emergency

Emergency SOS

Text 911

Take Action

Make a family communication plan

Use your phone wisely during an emergency

Signup for emergency alerts

Center for Inclusive Design and Engineering (CIDE)