As we’re almost always carrying them, phones can be a valuable tool in an emergency. If you get into an accident or are unable to communicate, you want those closest to you to know what’s going on and to have a way for first responders to locate vital information about you.
Fortunately, most of today’s smartphones come with a feature that allows your ICE (In Case of Emergency) data, including emergency contacts and important medical information, to be accessed from your phone’s lock screen. This means your emergency information can be viewed without anyone gaining access to your phone’s secured files.
It takes just a few minutes to set up your emergency contacts and enter any medical conditions you have that emergency personnel should be aware of. Here’s how:
Android Smartphones
There are a couple of ways to set up ICE contact information on an Android phone. First, you can add your info to the emergency information feature:
- Open Settings.
- Tap User & Accounts, then Emergency Information.
- To enter medical information, tap Edit information (you may have to tap Info first, depending on the version).
- There’s a separate section where you can enter emergency contacts. To do this, tap Add Contact to add a person from your contacts list.
Once you have set this up, anyone can find your ICE information by swiping up on the lock screen and tapping Emergency, then Emergency information.
Another option is to add your ICE info directly to the lock screen. Android lets you put any message you want on your lock screen:
- Start by opening Settings.
- Tap Security & Location.
- Next to Screen Lock, tap Settings.
- Tap Lock Screen Message.
- Enter the information you want displayed, such as your primary emergency contact and any medical conditions, and tap Save.
iPhone
iPhone users can set up a Medical ID using the built-in Health app. These are the steps you need to follow:
- Open the Health app and select the Medical ID tab.
- If prompted, tap Create Medical ID. Otherwise, tap Edit.
- Enter any information you want to be available to emergency responders.
- Make sure Show When Locked is turned on. This will allow your Medical ID information to be accessed from your iPhone’s lock screen.
- At the bottom of the Medical ID screen is a section for selecting emergency contacts. These will need to be people who are already in your phone’s contacts list. After you select a contact, the Health app will ask the person’s relation to you.
Now, if something were to happen to you, a helpful stranger, policeman or paramedic can view emergency information from your iPhone’s lock screen: on the left side of the screen, an Emergency option will appear which, when tapped, will display your Medical ID information without your phone having to be unlocked. Setting up your emergency contacts is a simple way to help those who are trying to help you get all of the necessary information they need. While it’s something you’ll hopefully never need, it can offer real peace of mind to know you have it available just in case.
I have already had a bad medical situation arise, I still can’t remember what happed why some some procedures were done at the hospital. I want this information on my new phone.
Hi Gay, thanks for your post. I’m sorry to hear about all of this but we’d be happy to help you with getting your medical ID set up on your phone. Please give us a call at 800-686-4460 or you can also chat with one of our agents here for further assistance with this.
Can you print the blogs?
Hi Helene, if you find any of the information on our blog helpful, you’re welcome to print them out.
For what Android version are these directions? My Samsung Galaxy J3 is version 8.1.0
Hi Alan, thanks for your post. The post provides steps for the up to date versions of the software in the phone. They may be in general terms though since we weren’t able to post steps for all models. If you need any assistance with this, give us a call at 888-548-6490 or you can also chat with us here.
A small spanner in your works…
If your phone has received any sort of message (this includes mundane system messages like google popping up the weather… it removes the lock screen message.
Unless the helpful person picking up your phone knows to swipe away all the messages, the helpful information (like NHI that I just set up for mum) is not displayed.
As for the Emergency information, as of yet I cannot find that feature on our older Samsung S5’s running 6.0.1 (marshmallow).
Hi Geoff, thanks for your post. Because it’s an older phone, the Samsung S5 might not have the same set up for emergency information as some of the newer phones. If you go into Settings > Safety assistance, you can set up the features there as well as an emergency contact if you’d like.
Neither ‘Security and Location’ nor ‘User and Accounts’ are under ‘Settings’ on my S10e. In addition, ‘swiping up’ does not display ’emergency’.
The steps can vary on Androids, Ron. You can try opening your Contacts, and tapping on the entry with your name, which is usually the first contact. When editing, there should be emergency contact info at the bottom.
None of these things show up on my phone and I am a Consumer Xellular customer. Is it possible either this information or my phone needs to be updated?
Hi Rowen, thanks for your question. It may also depend on your phone model. Give us a call at 800-686-4460 or chat with one of our live agents on our website here to follow up.