While smartphones have evolved significantly over the past decade or so, an area where they’ve made lives better for everyone is with built-in emergency response systems. Google’s Pixel devices support extensive emergency features courtesy of the Personal Safety app, and it looks like more improvements are on the way.
An APK teardown has uncovered what appears to be an iPhone-style live-video streaming feature for emergencies on Pixel devices. For some background, Apple introduced Emergency SOS Live Video last year with iOS 18. This feature enables dispatchers to request live videos or photos from someone facing an emergency, thereby giving rescuers a better understanding of the crisis.
Looking through the latest Google Play Services beta (version 25.35.34), Android Authority uncovered lines of code specifically referencing the ability to share video or stop sharing video with emergency services.
<string name=”thunderbird_live_dialog_button_positive”>Share</string>
<string name=”thunderbird_live_dialog_message”>Emergency services will use your camera to view this emergency. They may also record it.</string>
<string name=”thunderbird_live_dialog_title”>Share live video?</string>
<string name=”thunderbird_live_exit_dialog_message”>This will stop sharing live video with emergency services.</string>
<string name=”thunderbird_live_exit_dialog_message_button_negative”>Keep sharing</string>
<string name=”thunderbird_live_exit_dialog_title”>Stop live video?</string>
Taking the right cues from Apple
The strings depict UI elements that users would encounter in an emergency, primarily in the form of dialogs. Naturally, Google will also set up an elaborate support page for its version of Emergency SOS Live Video when it’s ready for prime time.
It’s unclear at this point if this feature will be restricted to Google Pixel phones or if other Android devices will also be able to access it. We also don’t know when Google will roll it out, as all we have right now are some lines of code within the latest Play Services beta.
This emergency live video feature would complement the existing suite of safety tools bundled with Pixel devices, such as car crash detection and Satellite SOS. Pixel phones also support emergency recording via the Personal Safety app, letting people record a video of up to 45 minutes in length and have it sent to a pre-assigned emergency contact. However, the video is only sent to the emergency contact after it has been backed up to the cloud, which requires an internet connection.
