Android’s Emergency Location Service arrives in India after nearly 10 years

Ben Schoon | Dec 23 2025 - 6:15 am PT

Years after its debut in other parts of the globe, Google has today announced that Android’s Emergency Location Service (ELS) is finally available in India.

Back in 2016, Google introduced Emergency Location Service on Android as a way of instantly sharing crucial details about your location with emergency services. When calling local emergency services, Android would be ready to send GPS, Wi-Fi, and other location data to bolster existing ways that these services can pinpoint your location. In the case of calls where signal is weak or you as the caller might not be able to speak up or speak freely, it’s a very important tool. Google extended the feature to US carriers starting in 2018.

Now, it’s finally coming to India after nearly a decade.

In a blog post, Google explains that Android Emergency Location Service is now available in India starting in Uttar Pradesh, one of the country’s northernmost states, which was the first part of the country to adopt the technology.

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ELS will kick in on 112 calls (as well as other emergency numbers) made in Uttar Pradesh on Android devices running Android 6.0 or higher.

Google says:

ELS is a free-of-charge service that activates only when a caller dials 112 or any emergency number from their Android device. It does not require any separate hardware or apps.

The feature is available solely to emergency service providers to help them locate emergency callers. Callers’ precise locations are never collected by or shared with Google. Locations are sent directly from callers’ handsets to emergency services only when an emergency call is placed. UP112’s command infrastructure and Pertsol’s routing intelligence view the callers’ coordinates instantly and trigger the right response, whether police, medical, or fire, within seconds.

Google also added that a pilot program was tested in Uttar Pradesh where, over the course of 20 million calls and SMS messages, ELS managed to work in sending crucial details, even for calls that dropped off seconds after connecting.

It’s unclear when Emergency Location Services on Android may expand to other states in India, if at all, but it does require work from emergency services and carriers as well. Google has a public form for governments wanting to enable these features in their region.