One night, not long ago, I had stayed up longer than was good for me. It was about 2:30 am when I abruptly threw my book aside and flicked off the bedside lamp. But then, as I tried to settle to sleep, the feel of my Apple Watch began to annoy me a little. I slipped it off and set it aside. But it was in no mood to go to sleep. Instead, the display wouldn’t go off and even through closed eyelids, was an irritant. I grabbed it and tried making it sleep, but it wouldn’t and so, I long-pressed the crown to power it down. Never really having to turn off the watch, I wasn’t accustomed to this quick action. I ended up swiping another option on the menu — Call Emergency Service. And it did.

I’m so sorry

Before I knew it, something was making calling sounds and Delhi Police picked up the call at some control room. I sat bolt upright in bed, wide awake now. “Oh no! Mistake, mistake, mistake,” I told a thoroughly annoyed sounding policewoman at the other end and she banged the phone down — understandably. I don’t know how, but my watch called her one more time before I powered everything in sight down — watches, phones, tablets. I had a very difficult time going to sleep that night.

But in the rational hours of daylight, I realised how reassuring it was that it is so easy to call the police — and that they responded. Never having tried to test that aspect of the gadgets around me before, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the emergency services were set for local use. I now sleep with my Apple Watch on.

Tell Siri to call

But what I also realised is that we don’t use safety measures already available to us. In actual fact, I don’t even have to touch my watch to make a call for help — to the police or anyone else. All I have to do is say Hey Siri, call emergency services and she will. If anyone were to grab my phone during an attack, they're unlikely to unstrap my watch.

One can do the same thing with the Google Assistant, with some prior trying-out. Make sure Google is set up to respond to voice commands from any screen, though some devices will comply and some won’t, and manually feed in emergency options. If not, Google will give you five options to choose from at a time when you may not be in a position to go about tapping on links from a Google search.

There are safety apps, many of which began to come up after the horrific Nirbhaya gangrape in Delhi. These will let you press a button to make an SOS call or send your location to in-case contacts and even switch on recording. Unfortunately, I don’t hear of people using these.

Leaf’s safety wearable

About a year ago, a startup called Leaf Wearables launched connected safety jewellery, which make great sense in cities that are becoming increasingly unsafe, especially for women. Safer, one of Leaf’s pendants, just has to be pressed twice to trigger messages or calls via the smartphone it’s connected to. There are also bracelets from them that not only look like cool party wear but also have a hidden help button on the underside. I’m not sure how well these are being supported by Leaf currently, but they’re inexpensive enough to try. Frankly, it’s time all fitness bands came with such an option.

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