The SOS QR app makes it easy for you to get help and be safe in an emergency. Use the app to be prepared for an emergency, and stay safe during an emergency with the app’s unique features, including
a one-touch SOS button that alerts your emergency contacts that you are in need of help; and (2) an emergency record that gives emergency responders the means to quickly access your critical health and other information so that they can render prompt and effective care.

The SOS button lets you quickly communicate with your emergency contacts. This button appears on the home screen after you have listed your emergency contacts in the app. When the SOS button is tapped it waits three seconds before sending out the alerts, in case you decide to cancel the SOS. After the three-second delay, the SOS button will automatically: (1) dial your designated primary emergency contact; (2) send editable text messages to all of your designated emergency contacts with the GPS location of the emergency.

The OK button lets your emergency contacts know you are okay. If your SOS-situation changes and you no longer need help, just tap the OK button below the SOS button on the home screen and your emergency contacts will be updated that you are okay. This button can also be used independently of the SOS button. For example, you can alert your contacts that you are okay in a disaster scenario without sending an SOS message ahead of time.

The app creates two versions of the emergency record for each profile created: (1) a private one accessed from the SOS QR app itself, for use by the user to edit or share the record in person (for example, in an emergency room), and which has all the record’s information available; and (2) a public, de-identified online version published to the secure Humetrix SOS QR server so that it is available to emergency responders who scan the record’s QR code when you are incapacitated and cannot open your phone. By default, the public version of the emergency record is de-identified so that information which could identify you – such as Last Name or Date of Birth – do not appear in the record. The user has the option to unmask any of the masked fields so that they do appear in the public version of the record.

The emergency record includes a photograph and data that you will be prompted to enter when you activate the app. This data is spread across a number of categories, including: "Personal Details", "Emergency Contacts", "Authorized Representative", "Primary Clinician", “Insurance Info", "Allergies", "Immunizations", "Medical Conditions", “Medications”, “Other Health Info”, "Implanted Devices” and “Special Needs”. Tap any of these category buttons to enter the appropriate pertinent information. When creating an emergency record, please add a photograph and fill out the Personal Details and Emergency Contacts sections as these details make it possible to identify the emergency record holder and notify emergency contacts in an emergency. Please note that by default, identifying information including your last name, address, telephone number, date of birth, last name of your emergency contacts or authorized representative, or the name of the insured person on your medical insurance policy are only stored locally by the SOS QR app on your device and are not stored in the online emergency record (please see FAQ How to change privacy settings in SOS QR for more information about app privacy settings). encourage you to provide any data which you feel comfortable sharing and that may be critical to your safety in an emergency. For example, under “Personal Details” you will find a field for “Languages Spoken”, which could be very helpful during an emergency.

When you add a condition that has an informative tip associated with it, the app displays that tip, and that tip is also available for viewing by tapping the exclamation-point icon next to the condition. These tips are intended to help you, working together with your physician, to achieve better health outcomes for certain medical conditions. These tips are derived from clinical evidence based guidelines developed by the NHS in England (specifically Quality Outcome Framework, or QOF, guidelines) used throughout England, and from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) MACRA clinical guidelines used in the United States.

You can add as many profiles to the app as you like from the profiles screen. Just tap “Add New Profile” to add another profile, and walk through the same steps described in the About section.

If you want to move an emergency record to a different mobile than the one it was created on, the SOS QR app supports this. To do this on Apple iPhones, you will need the Profile's ID number and key. You can get these two numbers from the Profile's main screen. Just tap down on a Profile, and you will see these two numbers in the lower-left-hand corner of the screen. To copy this Profile to another device, simply download SOS QR on that other device, and tap the Recover function in the upper-right-hand corner of the Profiles screen. Then enter in the Profile's ID number and key and your Profile will be copied to this new device. You can also use the Recover feature to restore a deleted Profile on Apple iPhones. Just use the process described above for copying the Profile to restore a deleted Profile.

For Android phones, please make sure Google Back-Up is turned on. Then if you get a new phone or reinstall SOS QR on an existing phone that had the app before, your profiles will be intact. We do not support copying a profile to an additional device on Android.

To delete the profile and all the data stored online in your emergency record, on the Add New Profile screen in the iPhone app swipe left on the profile and tap the red delete button. In the android app, tap the profile to open it and then tap “Delete” at the top right of the screen. Deleting a profile will permanently delete the profile from your app and the emergency record stored online. Deleting the profile cannot be undone, and consequently the record can never be recovered by using the app. As a result, scanning the QR code which you may have printed on a wallet card or stored in your phone camera roll will no longer result in your emergency record being displayed. Please note that deleting the SOS QR app from your smartphone will not delete the emergency record stored online which will still be displayed if the profile QR code is scanned.

You can edit an existing profile by tapping to select it from the Profiles screen. When you edit a profile, the app also lets you view the emergency record associated with this profile on the Manage screen. The emergency record you view on the Manage screen is stored locally on your device and can be viewed even if your device is offline. As the app removes some personally identifiable information by default, the record which will be displayed when the profile’s QR code is scanned may differ from the local record. If you choose, you can unmask these items so that they will be shown to the emergency responders when the QR code is scanned. This can be done by changing the privacy settings on the appropriate screens within the app (see below). You can view what information will be shown in this emergency record by scanning its QR code with a QR-code scanning app.

Your last name, address, telephone number, email address, date of birth, last name of your emergency contacts or authorized representative, or the name of the insured person on your medical insurance policy are only stored locally by the SOS QR app on your device. This information is shown in the SOS QR record in the app itself but will not be available in an emergency if the QR code of your profile is scanned. Each of these pieces of information can be unmasked by tapping the red shield icon next to the respective data field on the appropriate screen. Each of these items that you choose to unmask will then be displayed in the SOS QR record when your profile’s QR code is scanned.

This individual four digit numerical code is used by our secure server to prevent automated web-crawlers from accessing records. The individual numeric code needs to be entered after a QR code is scanned to access an individual’s emergency record.

Open the QR code image in your camera roll, select the image and then tap on the arrow in the lower left-hand corner. Then, in the lower panel on the next screen, slide to the right to see the button, "Use as Wallpaper", then tap "SET" and then tap "Set Lock Screen".

Open up your Gallery and select the QR code photo (Note: On a Galaxy phone, please go to Gallery and click on the album called Pictures). Next, tap the "menu" button on your phone. Select the "Set picture as" tab and then select the "Lock screen wallpaper" option. Please note that if you have replaced the lock screen stock app with a custom app you will have to set the lock screen image through that app, or if you do not see that option your phone software may not support changing the lock screen image.

The SOS QR app enables you to print a wallet card with the QR code and photo associated with a profile so that in an emergency when this card is found, the SOS QR record can be displayed to paramedics or other first responders. To print your card, open a profile and tap the "Print Wallet Card” button. If your phone and printer work together to enable wireless printing, you can print the card from your smartphone. If not, the app will let you choose to send a webpage link to the email address of your choosing so that you can access this website to complete printing of your SOS QR wallet card. To do this, you will need to enter the Profile ID and Key found at the bottom left of the SOS QR app screen when you open a profile.

These are used for (1) copying or recovering a profile (on Apple iPhones only) and (2) printing wallet cards. For more information on each of these two features, please see the FAQs: “How can I copy or recover a profile?”; and “How do I print a wallet card with my unique QR code and photo?”.

No. The QR code remains unchanged from the time it was created, even if information in the emergency record changes. This way, the QR code can be printed on stickers and magnets and other artifacts and won’t have an "expiration date".

We prefer not to endorse any given QR scanner app, but there are many available on the iTunes App store and Google Play store. We recommend downloading apps that have positive ratings and reviews.

Yes, SOS QR is available for Android from the Google Play Store.

Yes, all features should work the same between both versions.

Recommended devices are those released over the last 12 to 18 months running the most recent Android operating-system (OS) versions.