I have a confession: Hi, my name is Brittany and I am a closet tech buff. I remember back in 2008 when my husband and I first started dating that was the first time he saw my tech side. We were browsing the Verizon store and I was rattling off facts about different phones pros and cons that impressed even the sales people. More than that my husband was impressed.

He asked me how I knew so much about phones and I explained to him how much technology (particularly Apple products) meant to me. Ever since I received my first iPod when I was 16 in 2005, (the picture you see above) I was an Apple connoisseur. Flash forward now to 2018 at 29 years old I guess you could say I’m pretty knowledgeable at working my way around any type of Apple phone.

I was perhaps just a little anxious to receive my new iPhone XS Max with its absence of the home button and generally much larger screen then I opted for in the past but it was love at first sight. I also adjusted magnificently to the key differences between the iPhone 7 and the iPhone XS Max. I found that it was very user-friendly and simple to navigate. Of course, I could talk for ages about how much I love this phone and how I couldn’t recommend it more highly to anyone but I would rather discuss how there’s a lot more beauty to this magnificent device that actually meets the eye. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to walk you through one hidden feature a week that I found to be helpful and that I think everybody should activate when using their new iPhone.

It’s amazing how far technology has come in the last decade alone! I remember being no older than 13 years old, I had been walking around my Grandmother’s neighborhood with my cousin. We took nature walks and recorded miniature videos on my very first LG flip phone. About halfway through our walk I had realized that we were being followed by a truck and a strange man in it. I was very cautious about this, so obviously when the man pulled up and try to get us to come into his slate grey pick-up truck to help him “find his dog” I immediately saw through the guise. I remember how I yelled no, grabbed my cousin’s wrist and ran. This was the early 2000’s and while my cousin (who was and still is a total sucker for animals) was inclined to believe him I was able to see through this rouse and got us out quickly.

I think about that time in my life, especially now in the age of advanced smartphone technology. I remember trying to snap a picture of the back of his truck on my mediocre camera as I ran only to find it was blurring out the details of the license plate and the truck itself (I mean, I was running for my life after all). It’s a sketchy world nowadays and so this first feature I’m going to discuss is something I am really glad the iPhone has and is something that everybody should have set up but hopefully never have to use.

I’m talking of course of Emergency SOS. You can access the Emergency SOS part of your iPhone XS Max by going into ‘Settings’ (for me I keep all of my apps in a neat little folder customized to my needs).

As you can see it looks like a gear (for those new to iPhone in general) so be sure click it to access the steps on HOW to turn on this feature that could save your life. Once you are IN your settings scroll down until you see the feature marked ‘Emergency SOS’ you can find it highlighted in the picture below.

You’ll find it between ‘Face ID & Passcode‘ and ‘Battery‘, so once you find it go on and click it. Now , once you’re in that feature click the toggle ON to activate ‘Call With Side Button’ as demonstrated below:

What this amazing feature does is if you rapidly press the side button along with the volume button rapidly five times it will immediately (and silently) call emergency services. This feature is obviously being spoken about first because (while hopefully you’ll never have to use it) it could also save your life if there’s a situation in which you cannot swipe to call emergency services.

It is something you should encourage your family and friends to do in the event of an Emergency. Had this feature existed when I was 13 in the early 2002, perhaps we would have caught the guy who tried to lure my cousin and I into his truck. It is something you should immediately activate as a parent on your children’s iPhones (if you purchase it for your teenager or allow your younger child access to your iPhone on short walks to the park or around the neighborhood).

Furthermore, if you look below the set up to activate ‘Call With Side Button‘, You will see that I have my emergency contacts set up. Emergency contacts are essential to set up especially in case of an emergency where you are not conscious. In the Health app which is included on your new iPhone you can set up your personal profile and emergency contacts.

This way, emergency service personnel will be able to access your emergency contacts and call them from your phone even if it’s locked to alert them if something has happened to you. Setting them up is easy and also setting up a profile for yourself (which includes name, date of birth, blood type, weight and list of any medical conditions and allergies you may suffer from) is just as easy as well and I encourage you to do it because it gives emergency services responders key information that can help save your life quicker. Most to all of the new iPhone models will walk you through what to do the first time you access it so I really don’t have to post directions here.

Go into Health, click on Medical ID located on the bottom right (highlighted by the square box in the picture below) of the app to fill out your profile and set up emergency contacts. Once you have both in place, you will be able to see your Emergency Contacts in the Emergency SOS settings of your iPhone like mine is in the picture above.

I cannot stress enough for taking precautionary measures which could save you or a loved one’s life in the event of an emergency and strongly suggest you take the five minutes out of your day and set this amazing feature up.

On next Friday, we will be discussing how to record your screen activity on your iPhone. This is really fantastic for gamers who want to do tutorials that can now do this straight from their phone. I will show you how to set it up and access it! So be sure to stick around for compelling feature number 2 on the iPhone XS Max.

Are you, or someone you know, interested in getting an iPhone XS or XS Max? Is there another hidden feature that you found that you’d like me to talk about over the next couple weeks? Leave a comment below, I LOVE to hear from you all!

Love you. Mean it.

Brittany

Xoxo