Do People Feel Safer With The New iPhone SOS Feature? Here's What 44% Of Respondents Said

If you're a frequent hiker, you've surely gone off the grid. It can be nice to completely disconnect and go where Wi-Fi and cellular coverage can't reach, but sometimes, it can be a little scary — especially if you hike alone. Apple introduced a new functionality in the latest iPhone 14 that adds a feature called Emergency SOS. We've asked our readers whether they feel safer with Emergency SOS, and the conclusion seems pretty clear. Read on to find out whether this new feature is appreciated by iPhone owners or not.

Apple emphasized safety frequently during its latest product launch. As part of the release event, which took place on September 7, 2022, Apple revealed the Emergency SOS, and then followed it up with fully launching the service on Nov. 15. With Emergency SOS, iPhone 14 owners can rely on Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite services in order to communicate when they're too far away from a cell tower. This lets them get in touch with emergency services if the need arises.

If you live in an urban area and rarely leave the city, you're unlikely to need Emergency SOS, but it can definitely prove itself useful in more rural areas and on hikes. Plenty of people don't get reliable coverage even if they're not out in a remote location, so we can imagine that it will come in handy for some iPhone owners. Now, the question is, what do the owners in question think about Emergency SOS?

We've asked our readers whether they feel safer with Emergency SOS on their phones, and we now know the answer. To reach a conclusion, we've polled 606 people based in the United States. While one of the answers had a pretty big lead, it's still a little surprising, because one would think that the number would be much higher. 

According to our exclusive poll, 44% feel safer knowing that Emergency SOS will allow them to get in touch with emergency services if they're out of the range of cell towers and Wi-Fi access. Being able to get help even in a remote corner of the globe could certainly be reassuring.

On the other hand, not all people seem to care about that all that much, because a whopping 26.40% said that they don't feel any safer. As mentioned above, this feature is not going to be useful for everyone, so it might make sense in that way. The remaining 29.21% of our readers, however, don't use an iPhone and didn't have an opinion one way or the other. The conclusion is that most iPhone owners appreciate Emergency SOS, but it's perhaps not as universally loved as Apple may have hoped for.