How To Create An ‘SOS’ Android Shortcut With Action Blocks

Android: If you’re in a situation where you need to fire off a quick message to a friend or loved one because shit is about to hit the proverbial fan, don’t waste time. By the time it takes you to get out your phone, authenticate in with a PIN or passcode, pull up your messaging app, and start typing out a message, it’s too late.

Before you head out to a protest, you should take a few moments to plan the one-touch features that can help you alert your friends that there’s a problem. You’ll save a considerable amount of time if, or when, a problem starts flaring.

Setting up emergency messaging on Android

There’s no “emergency SOS” app built into the stock version of Android—at least, not what ships with Google’s Pixels, which is what I’m using for this piece. Samsung owners, on the other hand, can use their devices’ Emergency SOS feature to notify contacts that an emergency is taking place (and shoot them their location).

So, if your Android doesn’t have any kind of emergency messaging functionality, you’re going to have to get clever with your workaround. You can try setting up some complicated setup in Tasker ($5, but it’s worth every penny) that alerts a contact to where you are, sends off your location, and starts a video recording, but I’ve found a solution that’s easier for everyone to deal with (even though it’s not as fully featured).

To get started, launch the Google Assistant, tap on your profile image, and tap on ”Settings.” Tap on the “Assistant” menu, and then tap on the “Routines” option. You’ll then want to add a routine. Give it a unique command that would trigger it—a word you’d yell at your Assistant—but know that we’re not going to go that route, so the word doesn’t much matter. As for the actions you’ll add, you have a number of options. Here’s what I recommend considering (each as its own individual action):

Via the “Browse popular actions” section of “Add action:”

• Send a text that tells a contact you need help / are getting arrested / whatever the issue is you want to alert them about

Via “Enter command” that you type in manually:

• “Call [name of contact]”

• “Start a video call with [name of contact] on Duo,” assuming you’ve previously set up your contact in Google’s video-chat service.

• “Take me home”

• “Send my location to [name of contact]” 

• “Start recording a video”

• “Record a selfie video”

You can have however many of these actions you want in a single routine, though I recommend putting the video ones last for them to work properly. While this isn’t quite as elegant as the iOS shortcuts you’d be able to make on that platform, you’ll at least be able to shoot someone a message about your predicament, share your location, and either get directions home or start shooting a video of what’s happening around you.

Why talk to your phone when you can tap?

In a situation involving lots of angry people, yelling, flashbangs going off, and things like that, yelling at your Google Assistant to trigger a safety routine you’ve set up is not ideal. To get around that, you’ll want to install Google’s Action Blocks app. Once it’s set up on your device, you’ll want to create a new action block using the “Create custom action” command:

For the “What should this Action Block do?” section, all you’ll need to type in is the command word or phrase that you previously set up for your Routine. Then, disable the “Always speak action out loud” option, as it’s unnecessary in this context.

You’ll then select an image for this Action Block—since we’ll be adding it to your Home screen—or a simple symbol from Google’s library, if you’re not feeling creative. Give your block a name and add it to your Home screen. It’s big and ugly, I know, but you can resize it by long-pressing the icon just as you’d resize any widget. Tap it, and it’ll trigger your “I’m in trouble” Google Assistant routine.