How to Enable Emergency SOS Flashlight on Samsung Smartphones

If you need help in an emergency, you can activate the SOS flashlight on a Samsung Galaxy phone to get attention. Samsung phones come with a lot of exceptional and professional features that one can use in an endless number of different situations.

While most of them are very easy to locate, some can be tricky, as some hidden features are difficult to access except in specific cases. One such hidden feature from your phone settings is the SOS flashlight. Let’s see how to find and enable it on your Galaxy device smoothly.

What Does SOS Mean?

SOS is a universally recognized Morse code distress signal for emergencies originally invented for marine use; many believe it means “Save Our Ship”, while others think it indicates “Save Our Souls”.

You can use it to call for help when you’re in an emergency and need immediate help when all other methods are either unavailable, ineffective, or inappropriate, such as calling others, verbal appeal, or others. In such cases, you can rely on the Morse code by flashlight in Samsung Galaxy phones. Needless to say, an SOS flashlight signal is effective in many cases but grabs the most attention when it’s dark out.

How to Enable the SOS Flashlight on Samsung Phones

Unfortunately, this feature is hidden, so you can’t access it by long-pressing the flashlight button on the Quick Settings panel to see additional settings as you do for other functions.

To enable the SOS flashlight, you first have to activate the edge panels. Follow the steps below:

• Go to Settings > Display and toggle on Edge panels.
• Tap the same menu and go to Panels, and select Tools.

Your edge panel is now activated. Follow the steps below to turn on the SOS flashlight:

• Open your edge panel by swiping inwards from the edge panel handle located somewhere at the side of your screen.
• Swipe on the panel until you reach the Tools panel. Here, tap the three dots menu at the top of the panel and select Flashlight. Click the flashlight button to turn it on.
• At the bottom, an SOS button will appear. Tap it to begin sending an SOS signal.

Note that you cannot control the flashlight intensity (level of brightness) when the SOS feature is active. This is so because dimming the brightness will only make it less likely that a potential helper will see you.