The twenty minutes that pay for themselves once
Emergency apps are bought in a mood and never opened. The ones that matter are the settings that work from a locked phone and the two or three apps a stranger or a paramedic can use without you. Everything else on this list is for the smaller emergencies: a storm, a power cut, a walk that went wrong, somebody who has not arrived.
Do these first, with no apps at all
- Fill in the emergency information on the lock screen Settings, Safety and emergency on most phones. Name, a contact, blood group and allergies if you want them there. It is readable without your passcode, which is the entire point.
- Learn the emergency SOS gesture for your phone Usually several presses of the power button. Learn it, and then turn off the ones you will trigger in a pocket.
- Turn on emergency location service Most countries now receive a far more accurate location from the handset than from the cell network when you call. It is a toggle, and it is off on some phones.
- Add a medical contact who is not in the same car as you The obvious contact is often the person standing next to you. Add a second.
- Check whether your phone supports satellite messaging Newer handsets can reach emergency services with no mobile signal at all. If yours does, read how it works before you need it, because it requires standing still and pointing.
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What to install
First aid from the international Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, with offline content and step by step guidance. Set the country when you install it.
The British Red Cross version, with excellent short walkthroughs. Worth having wherever you are, because the content works offline.
Turns a position into three words you can read out over a phone. Many emergency services now accept them, and it is the difference between a field and the right field.
A lock screen medical card for conditions, medication and contacts, on phones where the built-in version is thin. Free, and the premium tier adds little most people need.
An offline reference covering first aid, water, shelter and signalling. No network, no account, no advertising, and useful long before anything is dramatic.
Zello. Press to talk over data or WiFi, which keeps a group coordinated when the phone network is congested and calls will not connect.
Family location sharing with arrival alerts and a crash detection option. Widely used, and worth a conversation with everyone in the circle before you turn it on.
A personal alarm that sends your position and starts recording when triggered, with a timed check-in for a walk home.
Hold a button, release when you are safe, and if you do not enter a PIN it contacts emergency services. United States only, and clear about it.
Local incident alerts in the cities it covers, which is genuinely useful during a fire or a closure and a doom scroll the rest of the time.
A torch with a strobe, on a widget, that opens from the lock screen. Mundane, and the most used app on this list.
Rainfall radar with a short forecast, for deciding whether a storm arrives in ten minutes or two hours.
Wind, gusts and pressure in detail, which is what matters for a storm, a fire risk or a boat rather than a daily forecast.
Earthquake Network. Detects shaking using phones themselves and can warn seconds ahead in covered regions. Seconds are useful.
The research project version of the same idea, with early warning in some regions and a clear explanation of what it can and cannot do.
Offline maps with footpaths and contours. The map you need in trouble is the one downloaded last month.
Compass, backtrack, altitude and sun times from the phone's own sensors, with no network at all. Built for exactly the walk that overran.
Included for one reason: it sends a message on a connection too poor for a call, and it will keep retrying in the background until it goes.
Which of these matters when
| Situation | What actually helps | Set up beforehand |
|---|---|---|
| Somebody is hurt in front of you | The emergency number, then a first aid app | Offline content downloaded |
| You cannot describe where you are | Three word location, or a dropped pin | App installed, location permission granted |
| A walk is taking much longer than planned | Offline map, backtrack, a timed check-in | Map downloaded, contact chosen |
| A storm is coming in | Radar and wind, then charging everything | Nothing, but know which app you trust |
| The power is out for a day | Torch, radio, a battery pack | Pack charged, torch on the lock screen |
| Phone network congested after an incident | Text or a data message, not a call | An app that retries, already installed |
| You are unconscious | Lock screen emergency information | Filled in tonight, by you |
Notice how much of that column is a thing you do in advance and nothing you do on the day. That is the whole argument for spending twenty minutes on this once a year, usually when the clocks change and you are already testing the smoke alarm.
Lock screen details tonight, one first aid app with offline content, a way to say where you are, and a torch you can reach without unlocking anything.
Frequently asked questions
Can I call an emergency number with no SIM card?
In most countries yes, a handset with no SIM can still place an emergency call over any available network. What it usually cannot do is receive a call back, which is a reason to say where you are early.
Do location sharing apps drain the battery?
Continuous sharing does, noticeably. Timed sharing for a journey costs very little, and is the setting most people should be using anyway.
Are first aid apps worth anything without training?
They are better than nothing and far worse than a course. Their real value is the ten minutes spent reading them before anything happens, and the dispatcher's instructions on the day.
Which one thing should I do if I only do one?
Fill in the emergency information on the lock screen. It takes two minutes, it needs no app, and it is readable by the person who finds you.
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