This archive report was first published on 1 October 2021.
On September 29th, 2021, Google rolled out an update to the Personal Safety app on the Play Store, adding a new feature called 'emergency SOS' to Pixel devices.
The 'emergency SOS' feature allows users to quickly call emergency services, share their location, and record a video by tapping the power button five times in quick succession.
Users can configure the emergency SOS to call the emergency services number in their area, share real-time status updates on their location, remaining battery life, phone calls, and start a video recording that will be automatically backed up in the cloud.
Users can also choose whether or not an alarm sound should be played during the countdown before the emergency SOS is triggered.
Once the video is recorded, users will have about 15 seconds to decide whether or not they want the recording to be shared with emergency contacts automatically.
Video recordings will be stored on the cloud for 7 days, after which they're automatically deleted.
Before it's deleted, the user can share a link to the file, which is hosted on Google's servers.
