The other day, my teenage son, who now has a driver's license and his own car, showed me an interesting shortcut that he created on his iPhone. With essentially one tap, he can alert me and my wife that he is in trouble and let us know exactly where he is located. He gave me permission to share his shortcut here because it might be something that you want to put on your own iPhone or the iPhone of one of your family members.
Once my son triggers this shortcut, here is what it does. First, it sends a text message to me and my wife that says "In trouble and I'm at:" Next, after determining the current location, the shortcut sends that location in a number of different ways: (1) as a street address, (2) as a very precise Latitude and Longitude, and (3) as a map picture that can be tapped to open up the precise location in the Maps app. Sure, it is a little duplicative to send all three, but in an emergency situation, we may not be using all of our wits, so why not be as clear as possible.
The shortcut has just a few, simple steps, so you can create it yourself in the Shortcuts app on your iPhone in just a few minutes or less. Here are the specific steps that he used in the Shortcuts app. (I redacted my wife's name):
Note that for each Send command in this shortcut, you will see at the end a circle with a > in it. Tap that circle on each command and you will see "Show When Run" with an on/off switch. Turn that switch OFF for each Send command in the shortcut. That way, all of the messages will be sent without even opening up the Messages app and without waiting for you to confirm each send, which is critical to make this quick and efficient.
If you are in an emergency, you don't want to have to open up the Shortcuts app to trigger this shortcut. Thus, my son created a small Shortcuts widget that triggers this shortcut when you press it and he placed that widget at the top right of the widgets screen that you access by swiping from left to right on the front of an iPhone. I like that location. First, the widget is in a location that you are unlikely to hit accidentally, Second, it is easily accessible, even if the iPhone is locked.
Thanks to this widget, if my son senses that he is in an emergency, he can swipe to the right and press one button. That's it. That alerts me and my wife that something is wrong and tells us where he is located. And if someone dangerous is near my son, he won't have to say anything.
Will my son ever need to use this shortcut? I certainly hope not. But just like I hope that I never have to use crash detection or Satellite SOS on my iPhone 14 Pro, I'm very glad that he has this shortcut, just in case. Consider whether you want to create something similar.
