We made it easier to get help in case of an emergency during your ride

Srihari Sasikumar, Senior Product Manager, Safety

. July 3, 2025 . Regional

Grab’s SOS button is an in-app support hotline to connect users with emergency responders or Grab’s safety team. We’ve recently made some tweaks to make getting help even faster and easier.

Where to find the Emergency SOS button?

At any time during your trip, you can access the SOS hotline by:

Opening the Safety Centre in the Grab app
Selecting Emergency SOS
Tapping the Call button to get immediate assistance

Find the SOS button when there’s an alert

The Grab app shows alerts when it detects incidents like crashes, unexpected route changes, or unusual trip terminations. The Emergency SOS button is also directly accessible via one of these alert messages, making it even easier to reach out for help when it’s needed most.

Safety contacts are alerted

When you initiate an SOS call, your pre-saved emergency contacts will automatically receive a text notification, so they’re kept in the loop. They will be alerted that an emergency request has been activated and prompted to contact the individual right away.

You can add emergency contacts when you enter the Emergency SOS page via the Safety Centre.

What’s new?

Safety is of utmost importance to us. That’s why we make sure the emergency response user flow stays up to date and easy to use.

Guided by user insights, we made a few changes to make the SOS button quicker to find and more intuitive to use during emergencies.

In the past, for instance, users had to slide the button to initiate an emergency call. During user testing, we found that people preferred pressing a simple call button in urgent situations.

We also simplified the design by reducing the amount of text and focusing on clear, actionable steps and introduced a new screen that shows up after a call is placed.

The confirmation screen reassures you everything is in motion. On this screen, users can also hit the call button to reach their emergency contacts.

After testing the updated design against the old one, the improvements were clear: 77 per cent of users said the updated design was more intuitive.

Safety first

This updated SOS button is part of our commitment to making sure every ride feels secure and supported. Emergencies may be unpredictable, but with this redesign, we hope to bring a little more clarity and peace of mind when it matters most.

Rides