Earlier this year, as part of its annual WWDC event, Apple announced a number of new features for its iOS 18 mobile operating system, which will become generally available in the fall. One of them was the Emergency SOS Live Video function, which allows you to make video calls to emergency services. Now it has become known that this tool will work when calling the 911 rescue service, which operates in the United States and Canada.
Image Source: Apple/RapidSOS
This feature will allow you to communicate via video with 911 dispatchers and other emergency services, which can be extremely important in extreme situations. For example, communicating via video will allow emergency dispatchers to better assess situations and provide more effective advice. Note that the Emergency SOS function, available on iOS, already allows you to make voice calls and send messages to rescuers, as well as report your location.
In recent years, Apple has added several features to its operating systems aimed at keeping users safe. For example, the iPhone 14 introduced the Crash Detection function, which, if a serious car accident is detected and there is no response from the user for a certain time, automatically sends a corresponding message to emergency services. This feature was later added to the Apple Watch Series 8, Watch Ultra, etc. The iPhone 14 also debuted the Emergency SOS function, which made it possible to send messages and location coordinates to rescuers via satellite communications, even when the owner of the device was out of range of the cellular network.