Hands-free SOS: Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa

On the Emergency page, under Emergency alerts, the account owner (or the patient's own key, which opens the same account) finds Hands-free SOS. It makes a long, random SOS link for this circle. Anything that opens the link presses Get Help Now: the account owner, the family caregivers and the professional on shift get a phone notification, a text and an email, the backup contacts follow if nobody answers, and the alert appears in the Emergency page's history stamped Voice assistant with the assistant's name. The link fires at once, with no five-second cancel, because the phrase was already said to the assistant. It never calls 911.

The link: choose what it is for (Siri, Google Assistant or another assistant) and tap Make a link. The link is shown once, with Copy; the app keeps only a one-way hash of it, so it cannot be shown again. If it is lost, tap Revoke and make a new one. A revoked link stops working at once and answers as if it never existed. Each link lists when it was made, how many times it fired and when it last did. At most three alerts in ten minutes go through one link; a second hit while an alert is open joins that alert, like a second tap on the band.

iPhone, Siri: copy the link, open the Shortcuts app, tap the Add button, tap New Shortcut then Rename and name it Send help, tap Add Action and choose Get Contents of URL (under Web), paste the link in the URL field, tap Show More and set Method to POST, tap Done, and run it once so the iPhone can ask to allow it to reach www.expressagain.com. From then on, Hey Siri, send help runs it; with Allow Siri When Locked on in Settings, from the locked phone too. The steps follow Apple's Shortcuts User Guide (Create a custom shortcut; Run shortcuts with Siri) and work today.

Android, Google Assistant: copy the link, open the Google Home app, tap Automations (Routines on older versions), Add, then Personal; Add starter, When I say to my assistant, type send help; Add action, Custom actions, type open followed by the link; name the routine and Save. Hey Google, send help then opens the link in the phone's browser, which shows that the family has been alerted. This needs the phone: a speaker has no browser, so say it to the phone. The steps follow Google's Create and manage routines help page and work today.

Alexa: Alexa routines cannot call a link by themselves, so ExpressAgain has an Alexa skill, written and ready to submit, with its certification checklist and privacy lines. Its status is: activates on Amazon's approval. The day Amazon approves it, the skill is enabled in the Alexa app, the account owner signs in once on the Link Alexa page, and Alexa, ask Express Again to send help presses Get Help Now. The skill alerts the family and the circle only; it never contacts 911 or any emergency service.

Test it sends a test through the hands-free path: every message says TEST, the card follows who answered, and End the test closes it. The card also lists the last five hands-free events: when, and by what (Siri Shortcut, Google Assistant, Alexa skill, Test it). The in-app voice command send help is different: it keeps the five-second Cancel, because the person is looking at the screen.