Emergency officials in Tolland County are issuing a warning after receiving several false 911 calls from people wearing Apple Watches.
In the last week, Tolland County Mutual Aid Fire Service has received about nine false 911 calls from Apple Watch users and they are concerned that the problem will grow as more people buy the devices.
Emergency officials are warning people who use an Apple Watch so they know the watch could easily dial 911 without warning if the Apple SOS feature is enabled.
If you do accidentally wrist-dial 911, stay on the line and let dispatchers know what happened or they will waste time calling you back to ensure that there is not a real emergency, Tolland County Mutual Aid Fire Service urges.
The Apple support web page says that making a call with SOS on an Apple Watch will automatically connect you to the local emergency number.
You can change the setting so that holding the side button won't call emergency services automatically. To do so, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and tap the “My Watch” tab. Then tap “General > Emergency SOS” and turn off “Hold to Auto Call.”
If you turn off this setting, you can still use the emergency SOS slider to make a call.
