Let’s face it, our smartphones go pretty much everywhere with us. They never leave our side, either sitting snuggly in the comfy confines of our pockets or gripped tight in our hands, lest we accidentally drop it and risk cracking that screen. It makes our smartphones an incredibly valuable device, not just for companies trying to snoop on your location, but for emergency services to quickly get a snapshot of your medical information to help you should you have an accident. Your Android phone’s not magic, though. You’ll need to enter your medical information yourself so that it can present it when the time arises, so let’s explain how to do exactly that.
These steps outline the process on a Google Pixel phone, but they should be pretty much identical on any Android smartphone, save some minor tweaks to settings names. It’s also worth noting that the Personal Safety app comes pre-installed on Pixel phones and adds a number of features not available in the regular Medical Information settings.
Adding medical information to your Android phone
1. To enter this information, you’ll need to dive deep into your phone’s settings. Start by going to Settings and then scroll down to find the Safety & Emergency option. It should be tucked in between your Location and Passwords & Accounts options in the list here.
2. Within the Safety & Emergency menu, you’ll find Medical Information at the very top. Tap on this, and you can fill out the following medical information fields:
- Name
- Blood Type
- Allergies
- Medications
- Address
- Medical Notes
- Organ Donor Status
3. Tapping on each of these fields will bring up a text box for you to enter your information. The only exceptions to this are the Organ Donor and Blood Type fields, which will bring up a list for you to choose from.
On Samsung phones, you’ll need to tap the pencil icon in the upper right-hand corner to see and edit the different fields noted above.
All of the medical information you add to your Android phone is only saved on your device, so you don’t have to worry about Google learning you’re O- or of your crippling dairy allergy.
Displaying medical information in an emergency
1. At the very bottom of the Medical Information screen, you’ll see a box stating, “To help in an emergency, people can view this info without unlocking your device.”
2. If you tap on Change Settings here, you can then toggle this option on and off. We’d recommend leaving this enabled, as otherwise, it could be tricky for paramedics or other emergency service staff members to gain access to this valuable, life-saving information.
You might also want to set some close friends or family members as your emergency contacts. When in an emergency, your phone will allow people to view and call these contacts without unlocking your device, as long as you’ve got the above setting toggled on.
To set these, from within the Safety & Emergency settings, select Emergency Contacts. Now tap on the Add Contact option and select the person from your contact list that you want to add. Your phone will automatically send them a text message to let them know you’ve added them as an emergency contact, so you might want to let them know ahead of time in case they start panicking something’s happened… you know what mums are like!
Emergency SOS Mode
Emergency SOS mode can be used if you’re feeling under threat and fear for your safety to alert your emergency contacts and the police that you’re in danger.
1. To enable it, go to Settings -> Safety & Emergency -> Emergency SOS.
2. Tap the toggle button next to Use Emergency SOS, to enable the feature. When you press the Power button quickly five times or more in an emergency, your phone will play a loud alarm sound by default.
3. Alongside this, users can also choose to enable any of the following actions when emergency SOS is activated:
- Call emergency services
- Share info with emergency contacts
- Record emergency video
4. To enable these, simply tap on their respective toggle on the Emergency SOS screen and complete the on-screen instructions.
The emergency video option may require you to go into the permissions of your Personal Safety app, depending on whether or not it already has permission to access your camera and microphone.
The option to share info with emergency contacts will also need you to complete the setup. This will require you to confirm the emergency contacts (which we explained how to set up earlier in this guide), and then agree to share your location in Google Maps all the time.
By tapping on the share info option, your phone will automatically guide you to the setting you’ll need to change if you’ve not already set your location settings for Google Maps to Allow all the time.
And just like that, your Android phone is now filled with handy medical information and emergency contacts should you ever need them. If you’re looking for more handy Android guides, you can read our 6 tips to make your Pixel 6 even smarter, how to prevent apps ‘sleeping’ in the background on Android, and how to back up SMS text messages, too.
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