Google working on voice-activated emergency SOS alerts for Android phones
A report says the feature would let users send an SOS alert to selected contacts by voice alone, without pressing any button.
Tech company Google is working on a new feature that would let users send an emergency SOS alert to selected contacts using only their voice, according to a report. At present, the power button has to be pressed five times to start Emergency SOS. A new update is now said to be coming for this.
According to the report, the company is building a voice-based safety alert system. It would allow an SOS alert to be sent without pressing any button, and would also place a call to first responders in an emergency. The company has not yet rolled the feature out to all users. However, it has been spotted in build version '2026.09.16.982745548' of the Personal Safety app, which means its code has been found in that version.
According to the leaked code strings, users are likely to get the option of choosing a hands-free method to send an SOS alert. Besides the code, an animation also hints that the feature may be rolled out soon. The animation may be showing features such as location check, emergency calling and video recording.
It is being said that the feature will start once the user says 'help' three times. The animation mentioned above may be seen during setup. Users can say 'cancel' to stop the alert from being sent, and 'yes' to continue sending it. According to the report, this confirmation will also keep the feature from starting by accident, so that no alert goes out unknowingly.
The feature could come to Android phones from different companies. However, it may not be available on Samsung smartphones, because Samsung uses its own custom SOS system. Google has not yet made an official announcement about the feature. It is also being suggested that the company may make some changes to it before the rollout, or remove it altogether.
All these details are based on an APK teardown, which contains only experimental code. Such code can change before an official release or be removed completely in a later update. Whether the feature actually arrives will therefore become clear only after an official announcement from Google.
