How to set up Medical ID and emergency contacts before you travel

What it does for you on a trip

If you are hurt or unwell somewhere you do not know anyone, the people helping you have your phone but not your passcode. Medical ID on an iPhone and emergency information on Android put the essentials where they can reach them: allergies, medicines, conditions, blood type and who to call, with their relationship to you. Apple describes Show When Locked as making your Medical ID available on the Lock Screen without a passcode, so that people who want to help can see it.

The same contacts are used by Emergency SOS, which alerts them after you call emergency services. Setting it up takes ten minutes at home and is much harder to do on the road, especially for someone else's phone. If you travel with parents or teenagers, do theirs too; our guide to getting parents' phones ready for a trip covers the rest of that checklist.

iPhone: Medical ID in the Health app

Apple's steps: open Health, go to the Summary tab and tap your profile picture in the top corner. Tap Medical ID, then Edit or Add next to each field, such as medications, allergies and conditions, and tap Done. Emergency contacts are added on the same screen: tap Edit, tap the add button next to Add Emergency Contact, choose the person and their relationship to you.

Two switches matter. Show When Locked makes the information visible from the Lock Screen. Share During Emergency Call sends your Medical ID automatically when you call or text emergency services from your iPhone or Apple Watch. Apple notes that this enhanced emergency data is not available in every country or region, and that nothing is shared if Emergency Calls & SOS is turned off in Settings, Privacy & Security, Location Services, System Services.

So in Europe, treat the Lock Screen view as the part you can count on, and the automatic sharing as a bonus where it exists.

Android: emergency information

On Pixel phones and other Android phones with Google's Safety app, Google's steps are: open Safety, tap Your info, then Medical information to add your blood type, allergies or medications, and Emergency contacts, then Add contact, to choose people from your contacts. To make it readable on a locked phone, tap Emergency info access and turn on Show when locked. The same screen has Share during emergency call.

On a Samsung Galaxy, Samsung puts it in Settings, Safety and emergency: Medical info for your conditions, allergies, medications and blood type, and Emergency contacts in the same menu.

Google also suggests a lock screen message for anyone who finds the phone, in Settings, Display, Lock screen, Add text on lock screen. A line such as your name and a contact number with its country code helps if the phone is lost, not only in an emergency. Our guide to losing a phone abroad covers the rest.

Check it from the lock screen yourself

Once it is set up, lock the phone and look at it the way a stranger would. On an iPhone, Apple's route is to swipe up, or press the Home button on older models, tap Emergency on the passcode screen and then Medical ID. On Android, Google's route is to swipe up on the lock screen, tap Emergency and then View emergency info.

Read what appears with fresh eyes. Is the allergy written so someone else would understand it? Are the medicines listed by name and dose? Do the contacts have their country code, so the number works from a foreign phone? Is the person you listed first someone who will answer at any hour?

If you are travelling with a companion, show each other where it is. A paramedic will know where to look; your friend at three in the morning may not. On an iPhone there is also a shortcut for yourself: touch and hold the Health app icon and choose Medical ID.

What Emergency SOS sends to your contacts

On iPhone, Emergency SOS starts with the side button: by holding it together with a volume button, or by pressing it five times quickly if Call with 5 Button Presses is on in Settings, Emergency SOS. Apple explains that after the emergency call ends, the iPhone alerts your emergency contacts with a text message, unless you cancel it, with your current location if available, and keeps sending updates when your location changes for a period of time.

On Android, Google's Emergency SOS is triggered by pressing the power button five or more times, and is set up in Settings, Safety and emergency, Emergency SOS, where you choose the contacts and what they receive. Google says it needs Android 12 or later and does not work in airplane mode or with Battery Saver on. Samsung's version is triggered by pressing the side button five times and sends your location, a photo and a voice recording to your contacts, with location updates every 15 minutes for 24 hours.

Abroad, keep a line that can text

The alerts depend on your phone line. Apple describes the iPhone alert as a text message; Samsung says the phone must have an active SIM card to send an SOS alert; Google says real-time location sharing needs a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection. Apple also warns, for Apple Watch, that when you start an Emergency SOS call abroad the watch may not be able to send your location or a text to your contacts.

A data-only travel eSIM, like the ones Snoozim sells, has no phone number and cannot send texts. So keep your usual line switched on during the trip, with its data off if you like, and use the eSIM for data. Emergency calls themselves are covered in calling for help with no signal, and recent iPhones send your Medical ID with a satellite emergency message too, as explained in Emergency SOS via satellite in Europe.