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.
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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.”
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