Emergency Information on Phone for a Parent: iPhone and Android

To put emergency information on a parent's phone, use the feature already built into it. On an iPhone, open the Health app, tap their profile picture, tap Medical ID, fill in medications, allergies, conditions and emergency contacts, and turn on Show When Locked. On most Android phones, open the Safety app (on a Samsung, Settings, then Safety and emergency), add medical information and emergency contacts, and turn on the lock-screen option. Then lock the phone and check that a stranger could find it by tapping Emergency.

The whole job takes about ten minutes once you have their pill bottles in front of you. The fiddly part is deciding what goes in each box, and what should stay off a screen anyone can read. That's most of what this guide covers.

Before you pick up the phone

Do this sitting next to your parent, with their phone, their glasses and their medication bottles on the table. Typing someone's medical history from memory is how "metoprolol" becomes "metformin."

Gather:

• Every prescription bottle, plus the over-the-counter things they take daily (aspirin, a sleep aid, supplements)
• Their allergies, and what actually happens when they react
• The names and numbers of two or three people who could get to them or decide things for them
• Their doctor's name and the practice phone number
• Any device in or on their body, like a pacemaker, defibrillator, insulin pump or hearing aids

If you've already made a written medication list for your parent, use that. The phone version will be shorter, which is fine.

iPhone: Medical ID, step by step

Apple's support page on setting up Medical ID and its iPhone User Guide give the current path:

1. Open the Health app and tap the Summary tab.
2. Tap the profile picture in the upper corner, then tap Medical ID.
3. Tap Get Started (the first time) or Edit.
4. Fill in the fields. Apple's page names medications, allergies and conditions. Depending on the iOS version, you'll also see boxes such as Medical Notes, blood type and organ donor.
5. Under Emergency Contacts, tap the plus button, pick a person from their contacts, and choose the relationship.
6. Turn on Show When Locked.
7. Turn on Share During Emergency Call (it may just say Emergency Call on some versions).
8. Tap Done.

One shortcut: Apple's iPhone User Guide says you can touch and hold the Health app icon and choose Medical ID to jump straight there. That saves a few taps when you're updating it on a visit.

Show When Locked vs. Share During Emergency Call

These two switches do different things, and people mix them up.

Show When Locked puts the Medical ID behind the Emergency button on the passcode screen, so anyone holding the phone can read it. This is the one a paramedic standing in the kitchen would use.

Share During Emergency Call sends the Medical ID to emergency services automatically when your parent calls or texts them from the iPhone or Apple Watch. Apple says it can't read the Medical ID when it's shared this way. Its support page adds a catch: if the system location setting called Emergency Calls & SOS is off, the Medical ID won't be shared. You'll find it under Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, System Services. Check it while you're in there.

Where does the automatic sharing work? Apple's own pages don't agree. The iPhone User Guide says the U.S. and Canada only, Apple's emergency call page says U.S. only, and its Fall Detection page lists the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. That page also explains that the phone uses its location to check whether the local emergency system can receive the data at all, so even in a listed country it may not arrive. Turn it on wherever your parent lives, since it costs nothing, but treat it as a bonus. Show When Locked is the switch to count on.

Emergency SOS and the people who get the text

The emergency contacts in Medical ID do double duty. According to Apple's page on making an emergency call or text on iPhone or Apple Watch, when your parent calls an emergency number, the iPhone can send those contacts a notice that they called for help, share their location, and update it if they move. Apple's SOS instructions say that text goes out after the emergency call ends, unless your parent cancels it. Apple also says to pick people you trust. One small catch from its Fall Detection page: contacts aren't notified automatically if the Messages app has been deleted or isn't the phone's texting app.

For a parent who lives alone, that text may be how you find out a 911 call happened at all. So the order matters. Put the person who lives closest first, not the oldest child by default. Our post on building an emergency contact list for a senior goes into who belongs on it and why.

Two Emergency SOS settings are worth a look, under Settings, then Emergency SOS:

• Call with Hold and Release. Pressing and holding the side button and either volume button starts a countdown to call emergency services.
• Call with 5 Presses. Rapidly pressing the side button five times does the same.

If your parent tends to grab the phone hard or fumble the buttons, you may want just one of these on, so they don't set off calls by accident. If they do place an accidental call, Apple's page on using Emergency SOS says not to hang up: wait for a responder and explain that they don't need help. Google gives the same advice for Android.

Android: Personal Safety app, Samsung, and the rest

Android is less tidy, because every manufacturer moves the menus. Below is what the official help pages say for the most common phones.

Pixel and other phones with Google's Safety app

Google's help page on getting help during an emergency with your Android phone says the Personal Safety app shows up as just "Safety" in the app list. To add the information:

1. Open the Safety app and sign in to the Google Account.
2. Tap Your info.
3. Tap Medical information and fill in blood type, allergies, medications and the rest.
4. Tap Emergency contacts, then Add contact, and pick from their contacts.
5. Tap Emergency info access, then turn on Show when locked.
6. In the same Emergency info access menu, turn on Share during emergency call.

Google notes that some of these steps work only on Android 12 and up, and that Emergency SOS (pressing the power button five or more times) is also Android 12 and later. The same page says Emergency SOS doesn't work in airplane mode or with Battery Saver on, which is worth knowing for a parent who keeps Battery Saver on all the time to stretch the charge.

Samsung Galaxy

Samsung's U.S. page on using a Galaxy phone in emergency situations gives the path: Settings, then Safety and emergency, then Medical info, with boxes for medical conditions, allergies, current medications and blood type. Emergency contacts are in the same Safety and emergency menu.

The lock-screen switch is easy to miss. Samsung's UK step-by-step guide shows a Show on Lock screen toggle on both the Medical info screen and the Emergency contacts screen. Turn on both. To view the info on a locked Galaxy, wake the screen, tap Emergency call, then tap View medical info. Samsung adds that screens vary by model, carrier and software version.

Other brands and older phones

Motorola, OnePlus and others usually have either Google's Safety app or a similar menu. The fastest way to find it on an unfamiliar phone: open Settings, tap the search bar, and type "emergency." Older Android phones without the Safety app can still hold emergency contacts and medical information, according to Google, though the menus look different.

If the phone is so old that none of this exists, skip it and put your effort into paper.

Emergency Location Service

One Android setting helps even if your parent never fills in a single medical field. Google's Emergency Location Service (ELS) sends the phone's location to first responders when someone calls or texts an emergency number, where ELS works in that country and on that carrier. Google says the location goes from the phone to emergency services directly, not through Google.

To check it's on: Settings, then Location, then Location services, then Emergency Location Service (or Google Emergency Location Service). On a Samsung, Samsung's page puts it under Settings, then Safety and emergency, then Emergency Location Service, and notes it may already be on by default. If it's off, Google says the carrier might still send a location during the call, but there's no reason to switch it off for a parent who might not be able to say where they are.

What to put in each field

The boxes have slightly different names on each phone, but they ask for the same things. Here's how to fill them for an older parent, keeping in mind who will read them: a stranger with very little time.

If your parent takes eleven pills, list them all, but put the blood thinner, insulin and heart drugs at the top, where a quick glance lands.

What to leave off the lock screen

Google's help page says it plainly: anyone who picks up the phone can see the lock-screen emergency information, even while it's locked. Apple's Show When Locked works the same way, no passcode needed. So write it as if it were taped to the back of the phone.

Leave off:

• Social Security, Medicare and insurance ID numbers
• Home address together with "lives alone"
• Door codes, lockbox codes, garage codes, or where the spare key is hidden
• Bank, PIN or password hints of any kind
• The phone's own passcode (yes, people do this)

Some diagnoses are private in a way that's your parent's call, not yours. A condition that changes what a paramedic would do (a seizure disorder, a heart device, a blood thinner) belongs on there. A condition that doesn't change the first hour of care can stay off if your parent prefers. Ask them.

Where the phone's passcode lives, and who knows it, is a separate question with its own answer. Our guide to digital estate planning for parents covers how to record that safely, which is not on the lock screen.

How first responders actually find it

The path is the same idea on both systems. A paramedic picks up the phone, wakes it, and taps Emergency on the passcode screen. On an iPhone, they then tap Medical ID, per Apple's User Guide. On Google's Android steps, they swipe up, tap Emergency, then View emergency info. On a Samsung, it's Emergency call, then View medical info.

Do crews actually check? Some do. In a Bangor Daily News article from 2018, Jessica Pelletier, a paramedic with the Madawaska Ambulance Service in northern Maine, said that with an unconscious patient nobody knows, crews look for ID, and "with smartphones, we can look for their medical ID, if they have one set up in their phone." She added: "It would be nice if patients filled it out." That's one paramedic in one small town, years and many software updates ago, and practice varies by agency. Treat the phone as one place a crew might look, not a step every crew takes on every call.

Test it like a stranger would

Most people skip this step, and it's where a setup quietly fails.

1. Lock your parent's phone.
2. Without using the passcode, wake it and look for Emergency or Emergency call.
3. Tap through to Medical ID or the emergency info screen.
4. Read it out loud. Is anything wrong, out of date, or confusing?
5. Check that a thick or folio-style case doesn't cover the screen area or make the button hard to reach.
6. Try it with the phone face down on a table, the way it might be found.

If the info doesn't appear, check the lock-screen switch first. Then check that the phone has a screen lock at all: with no passcode screen, there may be no Emergency button to tap. Fix whatever was off and run the test again.

The 10-minute setup checklist

Print this or keep it open on your own phone while you sit with your parent.

• Medication bottles, allergy list and contact numbers on the table
• Find the right menu: Health app, then Medical ID (iPhone); Safety app, or Settings then Safety and emergency (Android)
• Name and birth date match their insurance card
• Conditions that change emergency care, in plain words
• Implanted devices and "takes a blood thinner" in Medical Notes
• Allergies with reactions, or "No known allergies"
• Medications with doses, most urgent first
• Two or three emergency contacts, nearest first, relationship set
• Show When Locked (or Show on Lock screen) turned on
• Share During Emergency Call turned on
• iPhone: Emergency Calls & SOS location service on; Android: Emergency Location Service on
• Nothing on the screen that a stranger shouldn't see
• Locked-phone test done, and the info read back aloud
• A reminder set for the next time a medication changes

Watches, briefly

If your parent wears a smartwatch, it can extend all of this. Apple's Fall Detection page says the Apple Watch turns fall detection on automatically if the age in their Health profile or Medical ID is 55 or over, so make sure that age is right. After a hard fall, if they stay still for about a minute, the watch counts down, calls emergency services, and then texts the Medical ID emergency contacts. Wrist Detection has to be on for the automatic call. Google's Pixel Watch safety page describes a similar feature, and notes that a Pixel Watch without LTE needs the paired phone nearby to call. Both companies say the watch can't detect every fall. A watch also only helps if it's charged and on the wrist, which, for many older adults, is a bigger "if" than it sounds.

Where the phone falls short

The phone makes a fine second copy and a poor only copy, for a few reasons:

• Batteries die. Phones also get left on the nightstand while your parent falls in the bathroom.
• Crews may not look. As above, it's a clue, not a protocol. In a crowded kitchen, a paper sheet on the fridge is more obvious.
• Old phones may not have it. Or the menus are buried three levels deep.
• It goes stale. A medication list from two prescriptions ago is worse than no list, because people trust it.
• It can't stand in for legal forms. Each state sets its own rules for which DNR and POLST copies emergency crews will honor, so check your parent's state before counting on a photo stored on the phone. A note that says "has a POLST, on the fridge" still helps, and our POLST form guide covers where the paper itself should live.

That's why the paper version still matters. A one-page emergency information sheet for paramedics on the fridge covers every gap above, and programs like the Vial of Life tell responders where to look for it. Keep the phone and the paper saying the same thing, and update both on the same day.

If your parent lives alone, the phone is one piece of a bigger setup that includes check-ins and a spare key with a neighbor. The emergency plan for a parent living alone walks through the rest.

Frequently asked questions

Can paramedics see Medical ID on a locked iPhone?

Yes, if Show When Locked is turned on. They tap Emergency on the passcode screen, then Medical ID. If the switch is off, the Medical ID stays hidden behind the passcode.

Does Android have a Medical ID like the iPhone?

It has the same thing under a different name. On many phones it's in Google's Safety app as Medical information and Emergency contacts. On Samsung Galaxy phones, it's Settings, then Safety and emergency, then Medical info. Turn on the lock-screen option in either case.

Is it safe to put medical information on the lock screen?

Anyone holding the phone can read it, so keep it to what a responder needs: conditions, medications, allergies, devices and contacts. Leave off ID numbers, addresses, door codes and anything to do with money.

Does Medical ID work without cell service or a charged battery?

The lock-screen display doesn't need a signal, only a phone that's switched on. A dead phone shows nothing, which is the main reason to keep a paper copy at home. Automatic sharing with a dispatcher does need the call to go through.

How often should we update it?

Whenever a medication changes, after any hospital stay, and once a year as a habit. Pick a date that's easy to remember, like a birthday.

Keeping the two copies in sync

The phone half of this is yours to do, and the steps above cover it. The paper half can be done by hand too, with the pill bottles and a pen. If you'd rather not type it all up, Emergency Binder Now walks you through a guided interview that takes around 25 minutes and prints a binder for your parent, including a one-page sheet for paramedics that holds the same facts that belong on the phone. Have a look at a sample binder to see how it reads.

A note on limits: this article explains phone settings and is not medical advice. Apple, Google and Samsung rename and move these menus with software updates, so compare your parent's phone with the linked help pages, and ask their doctor or pharmacist which medicines and conditions belong on the list.