iOS 16.4: Emergency SOS call via satellite in Austria, Belgium and 4 more countries

Customers in Austria, Belgium and four other European countries can now use Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature if they’ve updated to iOS 16.4.

• What’s happening? The iPhone 14’s Emergency SOS satellite feature has expanded to six additional countries, including Austria and Belgium.
• Why care? At launch, this feature was limited to the US and Canada. At the time of this writing, it is available in a total of twelve countries.
• What to do? Please update to iOS 16.4 to use this feature in new countries.

iOS 16.4: SOS emergency call via satellite in six new countries

In March 2023, Apple announced that the feature would be rolling out to new regions later this month. On March 27, 2023, the SOS emergency service via satellite became available in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal.

A support document on Apple’s website states that people in these six countries must be running iOS 16.4 on their iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro in order to use Emergency SOS via satellite. “You need iOS 16.4 to connect to emergency services via satellite in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal,” it says.

This is because some local emergency numbers (Apple didn’t specify which) require iOS 16.4 or later to connect to emergency services via satellite.

Emergency numbers

In our guide on how to use Emergency SOS via satellite on your iPhone, people in new countries can use the following emergency numbers:

• Austria: call or text 112, 133 and 144.
• Belgium: call or text 100 and 101
• Italy: call or text 112, 113, 115, 118 and 1530.
• Luxembourg: call or text 112, 113, 12112 and 12113.

“Some local emergency numbers require iOS 16.4 or later to connect to emergency services via satellite,” the company said.

Crash detection optimizations in iOS 16.4

iOS 16.4 also tweaks another Apple life-saving feature called Crash Detection.

Collision detection in iOS 16.4 includes optimizations to reduce false emergency calls initiated by skiers and snowboarders. Collision detection, available on iPhone 14 and later and Apple Watch Series 8 and later, uses sensors to detect when you’ve been in a serious accident, helping you contact emergency services.