As announced at the end of January, Google is rolling out a Personal Safety update that adds a confirmation step for Emergency SOS on the Pixel Watch.
Previously, pressing the crown five times would call 911 (or a contact) after a 5-second countdown, with an alarm sound serving as confirmation.
Now, that 5x gesture results in a UI — as seen below — that prompts you to “hold your screen for 3 seconds.” This screen will “automatically close after 20 seconds to prevent accidentally placing a call.”
“Touch & hold to call” is the new default, but “Automatically call” remains available. Go to the Personal Safety app or Safety & emergency in Settings > Emergency SOS for the new “Ways to start SOS” menu.
We’re seeing the new behavior with version 2025.01.23.x of Personal Safety for Wear OS, which is updated via the Google Play Store. Once this change is rolled out, you’ll see a Pixel Watch notification about the “Emergency SOS update.”
Google is presumably trying to reduce accidental calls with this extra step. As a reminder: “If you place a call to emergency services by mistake, don’t hang up. Tell the emergency operator that the call was accidental and you don’t need assistance.”
More on Pixel Watch:
- Pixel Watch Performance Loop review: A poor price-to-performance package [Video]
- Find My Device Wear OS app spotted in Pixel Watch 3 ad
- Pixel Watch Concentric face update makes another appearance
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