Little-known two minute phone hack could save your life in emergency

A TikTok creator has revealed a little-known smartphone feature that could mean the difference between life and death. 

In a video posted to the platform, which has so far been viewed more than 333,600 times, the content creator demonstrated how registering to be able to text 999 could save your life—especially if you’re in a situation where you can’t speak. 

‘Imagine you’re home alone and you choke on a piece of food and you can’t breathe. How do you get help?,’ said Charlotte, a first-aid trained news creator. 

‘On my first aid course the best hack I learned is that you can text 999,’ she added. 

But here’s the catch, only if you set it up before the crucial moment.

The service—which takes just seconds to join—involves signing up for Relay UK’s emergency SMS services.

This, according to health and safety officials, can be vital in situations where a matter of minutes could be the difference between life and death.

It can enable someone who is alone in an emergency situation—for example if they are trapped and cannot talk freely on the phone—get potentially life-saving police intervention or medical treatment quickly. 

 She continued: ‘I did not know this, it’s not common knowledge.’ 

Signing up for the potentially life-saving service takes less than a minute, she added. 

Open the messenger app on your phone and text  ‘register’ to 999 and then ‘yes’ to confirm when the service responds. 

This will enable you to be able to message 999 in the event of an emergency. 

‘It honestly felt scary to text the emergency number, but it could save your life and it does work,’ Charlotte added. 

‘Take the choking scenario, you probably have less than a minute before you lose oxygen. So text your address and if you’ve got time probably the word choking. 

‘With landlines going out of fashion, you’re not guaranteed to get a response for just a blank 999 call.

‘If you haven’t activated it, texts don’t go through’, she warned her followers urging anyone with a phone to sign up for the service. 

However, emergency service officials warn that a user must not assume that, in the event of an emergency, their message has been received until they get a response. 

This will usually take around two minutes. 

It is imperative to include which service you require—police, ambulance, fire and rescue or coastguard—briefly say what the problem is, and give the exact location of the emergency. 

However, officials still encourage people in a dangerous situation who cannot talk safely to still call 999 and try to speak to the operator even by whispering as the first point of action. 

In this situation, a caller may be asked to cough or tap the keys on their phone to answer important questions. 

It comes as England’s worst areas for ambulance delays were revealed in the latest swathe of NHS data. 

The worrying statistics reveal a stark divide between NHS trusts across the country, with heart attacks and stroke victims in the South West forced to wait far longer than the national average. 

Analysis of latest NHS data found one in 10 patients in March were also waiting over an hour and 16 minutes for paramedics to arrive at heart emergencies.

Nationally, the figure stood at 28 minutes and 34 seconds – just within the health service’s target of 30 minutes. 

Sluggish response times are fueled by a catalogue of factors, although handover delays are one of the biggest issues.

Under NHS targets, ambulance crews arriving into A&E are meant to complete all patient handovers within 15 minutes.

Hundreds of handover delays of up to half an hour or longer, however, are being recorded across almost every trust in England still.

Delays can occur due to A&E units being overwhelmed by a lot of ambulances at once, as well as a lack of space inside hospitals, partly down to bed-blockers.