Google is putting safety and emergency front and center in the settings of Android 12. Today Google officially announced the Android 12 developer preview. This is only the first release of three total developer previews. Which will be followed by four releases of the Android 12 beta, culminating with the final release of Android 12 later this year.
Safety has always been paramount with Google in its Android operating system. But it seems in Android 12 Google is taking safety and emergency a little more seriously. As there will be a settings menu for the pair within the initial Android settings on devices. As pointed out by XDA’s Mishaal Rahman.
With Android 12, users will find the new menu under the Accessibility settings. And just above the Google settings, which contains things like account services, autofill settings, backup settings, on-device sharing and more.
Access Android 12 Safety & Emergency settings for the new SOS feature
Part of the reason for adding this new menu in settings, at least we would assume, is for the new Emergency SOS feature that Google is adding.
Inside of the Safety & Emergency settings menu, there is a new feature called Emergency SOS. There are a few things you can do from inside of this sub-menu. Including accessing the new SOS feature and the wireless emergency alerts options. You can also configure your own personal emergency information, like emergency contacts and other details relevant to that.
As for the new SOS feature, this is something users can choose to toggle on or off. If you enable it, there’s an option to play a countdown alarm. Which can also be toggled on or off. Toggling it on will cause the phone to play a loud sound before it notifies emergency for help on your behalf.
There’s also an option to set the number you want the device to call for help in the event that you need it. This is likely set to 911 by default. But you can tap on this to change it to another number if you want.
Making things easier to find
Adding this top-level menu in settings seems to be mainly about one thing. Making emergency settings easier to find. Or essentially giving users a central place to access the features that are in there.
The settings menu doesn’t currently have a top-level section for any of this stuff. So even if it is there, it’s buried pretty deep. But that appears to be changing going forward. And for the better.
