Shake-to-SOS
Three hard shakes inside two seconds and a guard is on their way. Why we picked that gesture and how to disable it.
If your kid can't unlock their phone, can't speak, or can't even look at the screen, three hard shakes inside two seconds will fire an SOS to the on-duty patrol. Same thing as pressing the red SOS button on the map, but doable through a pocket.
How to do the shake
The detector wants three sharp, deliberate shakes — not a rattle. Hold the phone firmly, then thrust it forward and back three times. Each shake should peak above 3 g. Walking, running, and even being in a moving car will not trigger it; the phone has to recognize a deliberate human-arm motion.
What happens after the third shake
- The phone vibrates twice and shows a confirmation: "SOS triggered. Cancel?" with a 4-second countdown.
- If the kid taps Cancel, nothing else happens.
- Otherwise, after 4 seconds, an emergency request is sent. The on-duty patrol gets a high-priority push, the family master gets a notification, and the optional emergency contact gets a text.
Cooldown
Once shake-to-SOS fires, the detector goes to sleep for two minutes so an accidental rattle while the kid is running can't fire it again. Pressing the SOS button on the map still works during the cooldown.
Disabling it
Settings → Privacy and Security → Shake-to-SOS → toggle off. Some sports (running, contact sports) can occasionally trigger false positives; if that's annoying, leave it disabled and rely on the on-screen SOS button instead.