How to Notify Your Family in an Emergency

• •Accident: you are unconscious or unable to speak.
• •Emergency hospital admission: your phone is not with you or has no battery.
• •Sudden illness at home, when you live alone.
• •Trip or hike: you are stuck with no signal.

In these cases, rescue services first look for someone to contact, and your family may know nothing for several days. Preparing a few details in advance shortens that delay.

This is the first step, and it is free.

• •On iPhone
• •Medical ID (Health app) can show your emergency contacts, allergies and medication on the lock screen, where first responders can read them.
• •Emergency SOS from the side buttons calls emergency services, then sends a message to your emergency contacts.
• •Find My lets you share your location with your family.

• •On Android
• •Emergency information (contacts, medical details) can be shown on the lock screen.
• •Location sharing in Google Maps lets someone follow you during a journey.

Some recent watches and phones also detect falls or car crashes and can call emergency services.

Limits: the phone must be on you, switched on and found. Emergency SOS assumes you can trigger it, unless detection is automatic.

• •Options
• •A card in your wallet, next to your ID
• •An engraved medical bracelet or pendant

• •What to include
• •One or two emergency contacts with their numbers
• •Allergies, current treatments, chronic conditions

Benefit: first responders find the information even if your phone is locked or lost.
Limit: your family is only told if someone calls them.

Choose someone who will know how to react:

• •What they should know
• •Your habits and important trips
• •Who to tell in the family
• •Where to find your papers and your doctor's details
• •Your wishes if things become serious

What you can agree with them
A regular check (a call, a message) when you live alone or travel. Without news, they know what to do.

A trusted person for medical decisions, if you cannot express yourself, is a separate role that is usually named in writing. Our guide Digital Trusted Person: What Is It For? explains the difference.

The principle: you write a message in advance, a service regularly asks whether you are fine, and without an answer the message goes to your loved ones.

What it brings: it works without action from you at the moment you can no longer act, and your loved ones receive your instructions (who to call, how to get into your home, useful contacts).

Its limits: it is not an immediate alert. At least the chosen interval, plus the reminder delays, passes before sending. It does not know where you are and does not alert emergency services.

Example with Laterly: you choose an interval (1, 7, 14, 30 or 60 days on the free plan, up to 365 days on Pro). At the deadline, you receive a reminder email, then more 1, 3 and 6 days later; one click confirms. Without an answer, a trusted person you have named is contacted before anything is sent and can hold it. The message then goes out by email. The free plan covers one letter for one recipient.

• •For everyone
• •Emergency contacts and medical details on your phone
• •A card in your wallet

• •If you live alone
• •A regular check with a relative or neighbour
• •An automatic message with a short interval

• •When travelling or in remote areas
• •Location sharing with someone during the journey
• •An itinerary left with someone, with an expected return time
• •A satellite messenger where there is no signal

What matters is knowing what each means covers: phone features help rescue services, while a trusted person and an automatic message help your family.