What does Siri think when you say 112? That’s the question that many people have been asking themselves in light of recent events. There has been a lot of speculation about why Siri would call 911 for someone who said 112, but it turns out that there is an explanation. Apple says that this feature was originally designed for users who are deaf and hard-of-hearing so they can make emergency calls with their voice without having to dial any numbers or speak anything out loud at all.
Children with hearing impairments can summon help without needing to find a phone or fumble with the dialing. But this feature is also available for all users who want it, and there are some other reasons why Siri might call 911 in these cases. The first reason is that when people say 112 what they often really mean is “I need an ambulance.” In English we don’t have distinct words for medical emergencies – you just scream ‘help!’ Then there’s the theory that because siren sounds like our word hertz, Siri automatically translates this number as being related to emergency services rather than frequency of waves per second (hertz).
This isn’t true about every country though; in China 112 means nothing more than a telephone number.
The third theory is that Siri recognizes the words “I’m having a heart attack” and automatically calls for emergency services. This appears to be partially true, but you can’t use this trick to get an ambulance out on a false alarm – if there’s no actual medical condition detected by sensors or cameras while your phone call is active then they’ll just hang up.
When we say the word “112” and Siri interprets it as emergency services, this is because, in some countries like Italy or France, 112 is an equivalent number for 911. There are also other issues with why it would call for help when you ask for that specific number such as if you were asking to speak to a person who was at their desk, they might not be able to answer from out of office hours or even on holiday breaks. For many people reading this article right now – I’m sorry! It’s just how things work; there isn’t really anything we can do about it. But don’t worry too much – all hope may not be lost yet! Why? Well…
You could just change Siri’s setting to a different number.
You could create shortcuts in your phone and use something like “emergency,” or “help” instead of the 112 number you wanted, so that when you say it out loud, they call for help instantly but if someone else says it accidentally then nothing happens!
Other options are using voice commands with just saying words such as “Siri” followed by what type of emergency is happening right now – this will not do anything until you explicitly mention where the emergency is happening (e.g. car accident) which would summon immediate assistance from 911 without any ambiguity about who should be contacted.”
If you still want to say the number 112, but just don’t like that Siri will call 911 when you do it, then go into settings and set up a different option for what should happen. For example, if you wanted to call someone else or send an automatic text message instead of calling emergency services, this can be done on Apple devices by going into Settings -> Phone -> Call Options -> AutoCall. You could also use “Siri” followed by the contact’s name (e.g., “Siri James”) which would automatically dial their phone with your default setting.”
You may not be lost yet! Why? Well…
You could just change Siri’s setting to a different number.
You can also type in a number and tap “call” on your screen to have Siri dial it.
You could say “Siri, call” followed by the contact or phone number you want.”
You would just need to completely erase 112 from what you want to be said for emergencies so that if someone does say it they will not be called automatically with their setting as is set up at this time.
As of September 2019, we are still waiting on an official response from Apple as to why does Siri calls 911 when I say 112? We hope that by December 2020 a solution has been found.”
