How to prepare your family for emergencies: numbers, phone features and a simple plan

Nobody likes to think about emergencies, and that’s exactly why so many families only figure out what to do once the problem has already happened. Someone feeling faint on the street, an accident, someone who doesn’t arrive and doesn’t answer: in those moments, knowing who to call and having your phone ready saves precious minutes.

This guide covers the essentials: the emergency numbers to know, the emergency features already built into iPhone and Android, how to put together a simple family plan, and the role, and the limits, of a location app.

Know your emergency numbers

Every country has its own numbers. Save the ones where you live and teach your children when to use each:

Calls to emergency numbers are free. In an emergency, calling the official service always comes first.

Emergency features already on your phone

On iPhone

• Emergency SOS: pressing and holding the side button together with one of the volume buttons brings up the Emergency SOS slider. The iPhone calls local emergency services and can notify your emergency contacts with your location.
• Medical ID: in the Health app, you can record allergies, medications, blood type and emergency contacts. The Medical ID can be viewed from the lock screen by whoever is helping.

On Android

• Emergency SOS: on many phones, pressing the power button several times in a row starts an emergency call and can share your location with contacts. The name and how to turn it on vary by brand.
• Emergency information: you can add medical conditions and contacts that appear on the lock screen.

It’s worth setting up these features today, calmly, on every phone in the family. Nobody wants to be hunting for the setting in the middle of an emergency.

Put together a simple family plan

A plan doesn’t have to be a complicated document. It needs to answer a few questions, and everyone at home needs to know the answers:

1. Who tells whom? Choose one point person to centralize information.
2. Where do we meet? One meeting point near home and another outside the neighborhood, in case you can’t get back.
3. Who are the main contacts? At least two trusted adults, saved on every phone, including the children’s.
4. What medical information matters? Allergies, ongoing medications and health conditions, recorded in the phone’s medical profile.
5. What if someone doesn’t answer? For example: wait an agreed amount of time, check their location, call someone nearby, and only then call for help.

Review the plan once a year and whenever something changes: a move, a new school, someone with a new health condition.

With children

• Teach them their parents’ full names and the home address.
• Teach them when to call the emergency number, and that it’s not a game.
• Practice through conversation or play: “if you get lost at the mall, what do you do?”
• Show them who to ask for help: security guards, store staff, families with children.

With older relatives

• Set up the phone’s medical profile, with medications and health conditions.
• Leave shortcuts to the main contacts on the home screen.
• Agree on routine calls or messages, so a lack of contact gets noticed quickly.

The role of a location app

A family location app doesn’t replace emergency services, but it helps at specific moments:

• Knowing where someone is when they don’t answer.
• Quickly asking people nearby for help, who may get there first or call the right service.
• Warning signs, like a battery about to die or a phone that has gone without signal for a long time.

LeMoove’s SOS button

On LeMoove, the SOS button is on the app’s main screen:

1. You tap SOS and a 10-second countdown starts, which prevents accidental alerts.
2. When the countdown ends, each person you chat with in the app receives the call for help with your location and address.
3. The request arrives in the chat, where you can keep talking.

Today, SOS is part of the Basic and Complete plans. In the next update, it becomes part of every plan and gains follow-up: request status, updated position and an “I’m safe” button. Step by step in How to use the SOS button.

LeMoove notifies the people in your groups. It doesn’t call the police or an ambulance. If you’re in danger, call emergency services first.

Alerts that help you notice problems

• Low battery: know someone’s phone is running out before it turns off.
• No location: an alert when someone’s phone stops sending its location for a long time.
• Arrivals and departures: know someone got home or left school.

See them all on the alerts page.

What to say on an emergency call

In the heat of the moment, it’s common to forget the essentials. Teach your family to say, in this order:

1. What happened: “someone fainted”, “there was a crash”, “there’s smoke coming from the kitchen”.
2. Where: the full address, with number, neighborhood and city, and a landmark.
3. How many people are involved and how they are: conscious, breathing, bleeding.
4. A contact number, and don’t hang up until the dispatcher tells you to.

Speak slowly and answer the dispatcher’s questions: they help send the right help.

How to describe where you are

It’s not always possible to know the address, especially on the road, on trails or in unfamiliar places. Some options:

• Signs and landmarks: highway name and mile or kilometer marker, nearby businesses, intersections.
• Maps app: tapping your own position shows the approximate address and coordinates.
• Shared location: if your family already shares location, someone far away can help say where the person is.

Battery and connection in critical moments

• Charge your phone before trips, hikes and long outings, and carry a power bank.
• Turn on battery saver when the battery is low and you need the phone to last longer.
• Avoid video calls and games when battery matters.
• In areas without signal, calls to emergency numbers may go through other carriers available in the area; try even without your own carrier’s signal.

Family checklist

• Emergency numbers saved on every phone.
• Emergency SOS set up on iPhone and Android.
• Medical profile filled in for anyone with health conditions.
• Two trusted contacts agreed on.
• A meeting point chosen.
• Children know their names, address and when to call the emergency number.
• Location shared, with consent, among those who need it.
• Plan reviewed once a year.

In short

Preparing your family for emergencies takes less than an hour and can make a big difference. Keep the official numbers handy, set up the emergency features your phone already has, agree on a simple plan and use a location app as support, to know where people are and ask those nearby for help. In danger, emergency services always come first.