How to Set Up Medical ID and Emergency Contacts on iPhone

Open the Health app on your iPhone and there's a feature tucked inside that can hand a paramedic someone's blood type, list their allergies, and name who to call when they can't answer for themselves. It only works, though, if someone filled it in before the emergency happened. This guide walks through how to set up Medical ID and emergency contacts on iPhone: building the medical profile, adding contacts, deciding what to expose on the Lock Screen, configuring Emergency SOS without triggering accidental calls, and preparing the satellite feature for areas without cell service. As Engadget put it in a guide to the feature yesterday, "in a crisis, these won't be usable if you haven't taken the time to configure them beforehand" (Engadget).

Apple built the system to surface iPhone emergency medical information straight from the Lock Screen, without anyone needing a passcode (Apple Support). The company added Medical ID back in 2014, and medical professionals have known to check an iPhone's Lock Screen for it ever since (Engadget).

How to set up Medical ID and emergency contacts on iPhone

None of what follows requires anything beyond the Health and Contacts apps already on the phone. The setup splits into two halves: a medical profile that lists conditions, medications, and allergies, and a list of people who get notified when something goes wrong. Both live in the same corner of the Health app, and both are worth finishing in one sitting rather than half-doing now and forgetting later.

How to set up a Medical ID on iPhone

1. Open the Health app, tap Summary, then tap the profile picture in the corner. Select Medical ID from that menu (Apple Support).

2. Tap Edit to begin editing Medical ID in the Health app, then fill in Medications, Allergies, and Conditions first. Apple lists these among the details available for sharing with responders (Apple Support), and Engadget notes this data gives paramedics better information for figuring out what kind of help someone needs (Engadget).

3. Add the optional fields: age, height, weight, blood type, and a free-text Notes field for anything that doesn't fit elsewhere (Engadget).

4. Use exact medication names rather than general categories like "blood pressure medication," since accuracy is the entire point of the profile (Android Police). Revisit these fields whenever something changes, the same advice Engadget gives for the whole emergency profile (Engadget). Tap Done to save.

How to add emergency contacts to Medical ID on iPhone

1. Tap Edit next to Emergency Contacts on the same Medical ID screen, then tap the plus button to pull someone from the existing Contacts list and assign a relationship label (Apple Support).

2. Add more than one person if possible. Engadget specifically recommends this in case a primary contact is unreachable at the exact moment it matters (Engadget).

3. Know what this list actually does. It's visible inside the Medical ID profile to anyone who finds the phone or treats its owner (Engadget), and it can trigger an automatic alert with location data when Emergency SOS goes off. That automatic notification depends on the phone's default text messaging app being Messages; if something else has taken that role, or Messages has been deleted, contacts won't be notified this way (Apple Support).

4. Tell the people on this list what they've signed up for. If Emergency SOS fires, they might get a location alert or, during a satellite exchange, a text they've never seen before. Knowing what it means ahead of time matters more than the mechanics of adding someone.

Making Medical ID available from the Lock Screen

Show When Locked controls what a stranger can see before the phone is ever unlocked. Share During Emergency Call controls what gets sent automatically to emergency services once a call or text goes out. They're independent settings, and each deserves a deliberate answer rather than whatever the default happens to be.

1. Turn on Show When Locked. This lets anyone tap Emergency, then Medical ID, from the passcode screen with no unlock required (Apple Support). Weigh this before flipping it: a Medical ID hidden behind the passcode is safer from prying eyes but useless to a stranger trying to help, while one visible from the Lock Screen helps responders but also lets anyone holding the phone, not just paramedics, read the medical details and contact names entered there (Engadget). Medical ID is only useful once it's both filled in and reachable when it's needed.

2. Turn on Share During Emergency Call. This automatically sends the Medical ID whenever a call or text goes out to emergency services from an iPhone or an Apple Watch (Apple Support). Apple notes that this enhanced sharing isn't available in every country or region, and that Apple itself cannot read the information once it's reached responders (Apple Support).

3. Confirm the setting the second toggle depends on: go to Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services, then System Services, and make sure Emergency Calls & SOS is switched on. Apple is specific that turning this off stops Medical ID from being shared during an emergency call, though it has no bearing on whether Show When Locked displays the profile on the passcode screen (Apple Support).

Configuring Emergency SOS without triggering it by accident

Open Settings, then Emergency SOS, to review activation options.

1. Use the default method: hold the Side button and either Volume button several seconds longer than a normal power-off press. This starts a loud countdown before the call reaches emergency services (Engadget).

2. Decide on Call with 5 Button Presses. Turning it on lets pressing the Side button multiple times quickly trigger the same call, faster in a genuine emergency but also easier to set off by accident, say, from a phone rattling around in a bag (Engadget). If that option is on, think twice before also enabling Call Quietly, which removes the warning sound that would otherwise flag an accidental call before it connects (Engadget). If a call does go through by mistake, the better move is to stay on the line and explain what happened rather than hang up.

3. Consider Call After Severe Crash, which can place a call automatically if the phone's owner is incapacitated after an accident (Engadget). Even with every shortcut disabled, the Emergency Call slider on the power-off screen still works as a fallback.

4. For a trusted contact or two, consider enabling Emergency Bypass. Open Contacts, select an entry, tap Edit, then set Ringtone or Text Tone with Emergency Bypass turned on; the alert plays even if the phone is silenced or sitting in a Focus mode (Engadget). Engadget suggests limiting this to people who'll only use it when something is genuinely wrong, since there's no way to apply it to every contact at once, and a false alarm at 2 a.m. defeats the purpose.

Preparing Medical ID for satellite SOS in no-service areas

Emergency SOS via satellite extends this same system into places with no cell or Wi-Fi signal, though the feature itself is limited to iPhone 14 and newer (Engadget). Apple recommends having Medical ID and emergency contacts filled in before heading somewhere off the grid, since the feature shares whatever's already in place once a satellite connection is made (Apple Support, last month).

Once connected, the iPhone opens a text conversation with responders that includes the emergency questionnaire answers, location down to elevation, and remaining battery life. If Medical ID and emergency contacts are already filled in, that information becomes part of the same exchange (Apple Support).

Notifying emergency contacts is a choice, not a default. Anyone with contacts already set up in the Health app can choose to notify and share information with them when texting emergency services via satellite, and once that choice is made, the messages go out automatically (Apple Support).

Contacts using iMessage on iOS 16.4 or later can then receive a live transcript of the exchange: the questionnaire answers, a map of the location, and the messages sent back and forth (Apple Support). To keep receiving updates after that first message, they need to reply "YES" within 48 hours, or reply "NO" or "STOP" to opt out entirely (Apple Support).

Keep it current

Medical ID and emergency contacts are only as good as the details behind them, and details drift. Engadget's advice is to check back periodically, since medications, conditions, and even the people listed as emergency contacts tend to change more often than the Health app gets revisited to reflect it (Engadget).

A few concrete triggers are worth building into a routine, rather than waiting for a vague sense that things are out of date:

• A new prescription or diagnosis: open Medical ID and update Medications or Conditions directly, rather than parking it in the Notes field.
• A change in circumstances for someone on the Emergency Contacts list: swap in a current number or relationship label under Edit.
• A trip somewhere without cell or Wi-Fi coverage: confirm both Medical ID and Emergency Contacts are current before leaving, since satellite SOS shares whatever's already on file the moment it connects.

Any one of those is reason enough to reopen the Health app and make sure the profile still matches the person it belongs to.