Yes, the EchoSOS app is free. We are funded by partner organizations and donors. Become a donor yourself and improve rapid emergency assistance: Become a donor now
For some features, such as displaying maps, an internet connection is required. However, to make an emergency call and transmit your coordinates to emergency services, you do not need an internet connection, but you do need a stable mobile connection.
If you are using the emergency app for the first time, you can make a demo call. This is not a real emergency call, but merely a test call. In the “Setup” menu, you can later add the demo call to the home screen to repeat the demo emergency call.
No, EchoSOS does not operate a first responder system.
No, you do not need to log in to use the EchoSOS app. The login at www.echosos.com is for EchoSOS partner organizations.
No login is required for the EchoSOS app. If you are an EchoSOS partner organization and have forgotten your credentials, please write to: partnersupport@echosos.com
You may see region-specific information even though you are just at the border of that region. In certain situations, it may be important to receive nearby border information.
We strive to make the emergency app accessible to help everyone in an emergency. Please understand that the app is not yet fully accessible.
EchoSOS works in over 130 countries worldwide. During an emergency call, your location is transmitted and can be retrieved by the emergency call center via www.echosos.com. Emergency call centers that are EchoSOS partners can see your location directly in the system.
No, making a phone call is a prerequisite for making an emergency call. During an emergency call, you will be connected to the local emergency call center, and your location will be transmitted to www.echosos.com. It is important to communicate with the call takers and follow their instructions.
When you have made an emergency call, the emergency services can retrieve your coordinates from www.echosos.com. It is important to inform the emergency call center that your location can be retrieved from www.echosos.com. Emergency call centers that are EchoSOS partners can see your location directly.
If you receive an error message after opening the link in the SMS, it may be that your browser is not authorized to access your location. You can change this in the system settings by granting location access permission to the browser (e.g., Safari or Google Chrome).
The accuracy of location determination by EchoSOS in an emergency depends on several factors, including how well your device receives GPS coordinates at your current location. EchoSOS determines the best possible location that the app receives from your device.
At the moment, this function is not yet available. However, we are working on a development to allow you to share your location with your emergency contacts in case of need.
To remove the lockscreen sticker as a background image, you can simply select any other background image and replace it. If you don’t know how to change your background image, please contact your device manufacturer.
Your personal data is not stored or processed by EchoSOS at any time. All your personal data is stored locally on your device or is directly encoded in the QR code on the lockscreen sticker. If you want to delete your data, you can remove it from the EchoID emergency passport and delete your lockscreen sticker with the QR code.
This feature is currently not available. However, we are working on a solution to allow you to store the advance directive in the EchoID emergency passport.
Your data is directly encoded in the QR code on the EchoID lockscreen sticker. This way, you have full control over your data and can determine who has access to it. Since your information is not stored on our servers but locally, you need to regenerate your lockscreen sticker after each change.
This feature is currently not available. However, we are working on improving this in the future.
We apologize for this and ask for your understanding. We strive to keep the content up-to-date and continuously improve it. If you are missing something, please write your medication or condition/allergy in the free text field “Other”.
If you have discovered an error or are missing an emergency station or permanence, feel free to write to us at feedback@echosos.com so that we can correct it. We thank you for your help!
Currently, defibrillators are displayed in the cantons of Lucerne, Zug, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Uri, and Valais. The data is provided by the Luzerner Kantonsspital and the Kantonale Rettungsorganisation Wallis. We are working to cover more parts of Switzerland in the future.
The data for the defibrillators is not managed by EchoSOS itself. For errors or new entries in Central Switzerland, please contact: info@firstresponderzentralschweiz.ch. For Valais, you can submit an entry at https://www.coeurwallis.ch/de/defibrillatoren or write to info@coeurwallis.ch.
Partner organizations are an essential part of the EchoSOS ecosystem. If you are interested in a partnership, we look forward to your contact at partner@echosos.com. All information about the partnership can be found at https://echosos.com/en/partner/.
As a user, you can become an EchoSOS donor and help improve emergency assistance. Sign up here.
EchoSOS transmits and stores your location and phone number for one hour when you make an emergency call. This information is anonymized after one hour. Otherwise, no personal data is transmitted, stored, or processed. The data in your emergency passport is stored exclusively locally on your device and is not stored or processed by EchoSOS at any time.
For more information, please see our privacy policy.
Your personal data is not stored or processed by EchoSOS at any time. EchoSOS only transmits and stores your location and phone number when you make an emergency call. This data is anonymized after one hour. If you want to delete your data from the app, you can remove it from the EchoID emergency passport and delete your lockscreen sticker yourself.
No, your location is only transmitted to EchoSOS when you make an emergency call. It is then transmitted to www.echosos.com and can be viewed by the emergency services for one hour by entering the phone number. After that, the data is anonymized.