How to Set Up Emergency Information and Medical ID on Your Android Lock Screen

If you collapse in the street, get into a car accident, or simply lose your phone, the first person who picks it up is usually a stranger, a police officer, or a paramedic. They cannot unlock your phone — and they shouldn’t have to. Android has a built-in feature that shows your medical ID and emergency information on your lock screen, no password, fingerprint, or face unlock needed. First responders can see your allergies, your blood type, your medications, and who to call, while the rest of your phone stays locked and private.

Setting it up takes about five minutes, costs nothing, works offline, and never needs an internet connection at the moment of the emergency. This guide walks you through it step by step on Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, Xiaomi, and other Android brands, explains exactly what to write (and what to leave out), and shows you how to test that a stranger really can see it from your lock screen.

What Emergency Information Is (and Isn’t)

Android’s emergency information is a small, deliberately public page attached to your lock screen:

• What it shows: your name, blood type, allergies, medications, medical notes (conditions, implants, pregnancy, diabetes, epilepsy and so on), address, whether you’re an organ donor, and a list of emergency contacts that can be called without unlocking the phone.
• Where it lives: inside Settings > Safety & emergency on almost every modern Android phone. On Pixels it’s also inside the preinstalled Safety (Personal Safety) app, which syncs with the same system page.
• Who can see it: anyone holding your phone. From the lock screen they tap Emergency call (or Emergency) and then tap the Medical info / Emergency information button. No PIN required. That openness is the entire point — a paramedic can’t ask an unconscious patient for a passcode.
• What it does not do: it doesn’t unlock your phone, expose your messages, photos, email, or banking apps. It doesn’t send your location anywhere, it doesn’t upload your medical data to an advertiser, and it doesn’t replace Emergency SOS (the five-press power-button feature that calls emergency services and alerts your contacts). They are companions, not substitutes: one speaks for you, the other calls for help.
• Medical ID vs. emergency contacts: on iPhone this is called “Medical ID.” On Android the medical details live under Medical info and the people live under Emergency contacts, but together they do exactly the same job.

One honest warning up front: blood type is the field everyone fills in first and the one hospitals rely on least — emergency teams type and cross-match or give universal O-negative blood rather than trusting a phone screen. Fill it in if you know it (it still helps outside hospitals), but understand that allergies, medications, and conditions are the fields that actually change treatment in the first five minutes. Those deserve your care.

Before You Start: What to Gather (5 Minutes)

You can fill the form from memory, but it goes faster and ends up more accurate if you collect these first:

1. Your exact allergies, especially drug allergies — penicillin, sulfa, aspirin, latex, nuts, bee stings. Write the reaction too if you know it (“penicillin — rash” is more useful than just “penicillin”).
2. Your current medications with doses, for example “Metformin 500mg twice daily.” First responders look for blood thinners (warfarin, apixaban), insulin, inhalers, and heart medication above all.
3. Your ongoing conditions — diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, high blood pressure, heart conditions, kidney disease, any implanted device (pacemaker, insulin pump), and recent major surgery.
4. Your blood type if you genuinely know it from a card, blood donation, or medical record. If you’re not sure, leave it blank. A wrong blood type is worse than an empty one.
5. Two or three emergency contacts already saved in your Contacts app (the feature picks from existing contacts — you usually can’t type a new number directly into the form). Choose people who will actually answer an unknown number: a partner, parent, sibling, or close friend. Tell them afterwards that they’re listed.
6. Roughly 5 minutes with your phone unlocked and, ideally, your prescription bottles or a repeat-prescription slip in front of you so drug names are spelled right.

Nothing here needs an account, an app install, or a subscription. Every phone in this guide uses tools already on it.

Set Up Emergency Information on Pixel (and Stock Android)

This covers Google Pixel phones and near-stock brands such as Motorola, Nokia/HMD, Nothing, and Asus, which all use Google’s layout. Menu names below match Android 14, 15, and 16; older versions differ only slightly.

Add your medical info

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Safety & emergency.
3. Tap Medical info. (If you don’t see it, open the preinstalled Safety app instead, tap Emergency info, and you’ll land on the same page.)
4. Tap Add information or the pencil/edit icon, then fill in the fields:

– Name — your full name. – Blood type — tap and choose yours, or leave as Unknown. – Allergies — type each allergy, comma-separated. – Medications — one per line or comma-separated, with doses. – Address — optional; see the privacy notes further down before adding your full home address. – Medical notes — conditions, devices, and anything else, in plain words: “Type 2 diabetes. Asthma — inhaler in jacket pocket. Pacemaker fitted 2023.” – Organ donor — set Yes or No if you have a preference. – On some builds you’ll also see Date of birth, Height, and Weight — age and size genuinely help with drug dosing, so fill them in if you’re comfortable doing so.

1. Tap Save (top-right). Your medical ID is now live on the lock screen.

Add your emergency contacts

1. Still in Settings > Safety & emergency, tap Emergency contacts.
2. Tap Add contact and pick people from your address book. You can add several.
3. If the person you want isn’t listed, open the Contacts app, add and save them properly first, then come back and pick them.
4. Order matters a little: put the person most likely to answer first. On the lock screen, responders see this list and can tap a name to call it without unlocking the phone.

Where it is on Pixel: the Safety app

Pixel owners have a second front door to the same data. Open the Safety app (a shield/star icon, preinstalled) and you’ll find Emergency info, Emergency contacts, and Emergency SOS together. Editing in the app edits the system page and vice versa — they’re one record, not two. The Safety app also offers Crisis alerts and Safety check; feel free to explore, but you don’t need them for this guide.

Set Up Emergency Information on Samsung Galaxy

Samsung keeps everything in the same place but with One UI wording. This matches One UI 6, 7, and 8 (Android 14–16).

Add your medical info

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Safety and emergency.
3. Tap Medical info.
4. Tap Edit (or Add medical info on a first run) and complete the fields: Name, Blood type, Height, Weight, Date of birth, Medical notes, Allergies, Medications, Address, and Organ donor.
5. Tap Save.

You might notice the same details inside the Contacts app if you open your own profile card — Samsung links the two so you only type them once.

Add your emergency contacts

1. Settings > Safety and emergency > Emergency contacts.
2. Tap Add / Edit and tick two or three contacts, then Done.
3. While you’re on this screen, look at Emergency SOS directly below. Switching it on (press the side key five times to call emergency services and message your contacts) takes ten seconds and pairs naturally with the info you’ve just entered — but it’s your choice, and the details are in the “Useful Extras” section later.

Set Up Emergency Information on Xiaomi / Redmi / POCO

Be ready for the one awkward brand. On many HyperOS and MIUI builds, Xiaomi does not expose Google’s full Medical info editor the way Pixel and Samsung do. What you get varies by region and software version, so work through these three options in order — the first one that exists on your phone wins.

Option 1: Look for the standard menu

1. Open Settings and use the search bar at the very top. Search emergency.
2. If Safety & emergency, Emergency information, or Medical info appears, open it and fill it in exactly as in the Pixel section above — you’re done.
3. If the only result is Emergency SOS, set that up (it’s genuinely useful), then move to Option 2 for the medical details.

Option 2: Put a medical note on the lock screen itself

If there’s no medical page, the lock screen message becomes your medical ID:

1. Open Settings > Always-on display & Lock screen (on MIUI: Settings > Lock screen).
2. Tap Lock screen signature or Owner info / Lock screen message.
3. Type a compact line, for example: “ICE call Anna 081-234-5678. Allergic to penicillin. Type 2 diabetic, on metformin.” (ICE means “in case of emergency” — the prefix responders worldwide are trained to look for.)
4. Save, lock the phone, and check the text appears under the clock.

Option 3: Use a free Medical ID app

If you want the full structured form (blood type, allergies, medications, multiple contacts), install a reputable Medical ID (ICE) app from the Play Store — well-known examples are literally called “Medical ID” — grant it permission to show on the lock screen, fill in its form, and enable its lock-screen widget/notification. Pick one with no account requirement and good recent reviews, and re-open it after big phone updates to confirm the lock-screen entry still shows. This is the one brand where a third-party app is a reasonable answer rather than an unnecessary extra.

Also on Xiaomi: add your people as proper contacts and star/favourite them, and consider naming them “ICE — Anna (wife)” in the Contacts app. An old trick, but contact searches and some lock-screen dialers surface favourites first.

Other Brands (OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Vivo, Honor)

Most other brands follow Google’s layout with lightly renamed menus:

• OnePlus / Oppo / Realme (OxygenOS / ColorOS / Realme UI): the emergency page has moved between versions. Use the Settings search bar and type emergency information or medical. Common homes are Settings > Safety & emergency > Emergency information or Settings > Users & accounts / Additional settings > Emergency information. Once found, the fields are the standard ones: name, blood type, allergies, medications, notes, plus a contacts picker.
• Vivo (Funtouch / OriginOS): search Settings for emergency. Most builds offer Emergency information under Settings > Safety & emergency (older builds hide it under Settings > System > Emergency information).
• Honor (MagicOS): Settings > Safety & emergency > Emergency information, near-identical to stock Android.

The universal trick: every Android Settings app has a search bar — use it. Search “medical,” then “emergency,” and open what appears. If nothing appears at all, your build is like Xiaomi’s and the lock-screen-signature workaround in Option 2 above is your best built-in answer.

Test It: Can a Stranger Actually See It?

Do not skip this. A medical ID you’ve never seen from the lock screen is a rumour, not a safety feature. Testing takes twenty seconds:

1. Lock your phone (press the power button) and let the screen go dark.
2. Wake it, but do not unlock. Swipe up to the PIN/pattern screen if your phone asks.
3. Tap Emergency call / Emergency at the bottom.
4. Look for Emergency information, Medical info, or a red medical banner. On many phones you must tap it twice — the first tap arms it (so pocket-taps don’t open it), the second shows the page.
5. Confirm your name, allergies, medications, and notes are readable, then tap Emergency contacts / the contacts tab and confirm your people are listed and tappable to call.
6. Press Back and unlock as normal.

If the page is empty or the button is missing, don’t panic and don’t assume you saved wrongly — work through the Troubleshooting section below. The most common culprit is simply that the test above was done with the phone unlocked, where the emergency button doesn’t appear.

Test again after major system updates and after switching phones. Emergency info does not always survive a device migration or a manufacturer backup-restore the way photos do.

What to Write (and What to Leave Out)

The page is only useful if it’s accurate, short, and current. Practical advice:

Definitely include:

• Drug allergies with the reaction, and food/environmental allergies that can kill (nuts, shellfish, bee stings, latex).
• Medications with doses, especially blood thinners, insulin, epilepsy drugs, inhalers, heart drugs, and anything you’d dangerously miss for 24 hours.
• Conditions a stranger must know: diabetes, epilepsy, asthma, heart disease, severe mental-health conditions where medication matters, pregnancy, and implanted devices.
• Devices and where things are: “Insulin pump, left abdomen.” “Inhaler — right jacket pocket.” Responders check pockets; give them a map.

Include only if you’re comfortable:

• Blood type — harmless to add, mildly useful, not trusted by hospitals.
• Full home address — a street address helps return a lost phone and identify you, but it’s visible to anyone holding it. Many people compromise with just a city or neighbourhood, or their emergency contact’s address. Your call.
• Date of birth / age — genuinely useful for dosing and identification; most people add it.

Never include:

• Passwords, PINs, bank details, national ID numbers beyond what’s needed to identify you. This page is public by design.
• Out-of-date medications. A wrong medication list can mislead treatment — update the page the same week a prescription changes, and delete anything you’ve stopped taking.
• Guesses. Unknown blood type? Leave it Unknown. Not sure of a dose? Write the drug name without the dose rather than inventing one.

Writing style: short lines, plain words, no medical Latin you half-remember. “Asthmatic since childhood, uses blue inhaler” beats a diagnosis code. English is understood by medical teams in most countries; if you live somewhere it isn’t, write the critical lines in the local language too — the notes field takes plenty of text.

Privacy and Safety Notes (Read Before Saving)

Because this page bypasses your lock, think for ten seconds about the trade-off — it’s a good trade, but make it deliberately:

• Anyone holding the phone can read it. That’s a paramedic; it’s also a thief and a nosy colleague. Include what saves your life, not your life story. There is no middle setting between “hidden” and “on the lock screen” for individual fields on most phones — if a line feels too private, leave that line out.
• Your photos, messages, and accounts stay locked. Reading medical info grants no access to the rest of the phone. Emergency contacts can be called from the lock screen, but the caller still can’t open your call history or address book.
• Nothing is uploaded by default. On Pixel and Samsung the page lives on the device. (If you use a third-party Medical ID app on Xiaomi, check its own privacy policy and pick one that works offline with no account.)
• Tell your emergency contacts they’re listed. Their number will appear on your lock screen and they may get a call from an unknown number at the worst moment. A ten-second heads-up (“you’re my ICE contact”) makes them far more likely to answer and to know your basics.
• A child or elderly relative’s phone deserves the same five minutes. Set it up with them, test it from the lock screen together, and add your own number as the first contact. For kids, include school name in the notes; for elderly parents, include their doctor’s name and major conditions.
• This complements, never replaces, other safety nets: a medical alert bracelet for severe allergies, your wallet card, and Emergency SOS below. Phones break, batteries die, and screens crack in exactly the accidents where this matters — the phone page is one layer, not the only layer.

Useful Extras Worth Turning On While You’re Here

You’re already in the right Settings neighbourhood; these neighbours take a minute each:

• Emergency SOS: Settings > Safety & emergency > Emergency SOS. When on, pressing the power button five times quickly calls emergency services and (optionally) texts your location to your emergency contacts. Practise the press once so you know the countdown screen — it usually gives a few seconds to cancel a pocket-trigger.
• Emergency sharing / Safety check (Pixel Safety app): lets your contacts watch a timed trip or receive your live location if you don’t check in. Optional, but excellent for solo travel and late-night walks.
• Lock-screen notification privacy: Settings > Notifications > Lock screen — choose Hide sensitive content so message previews stay private while your medical page does the public talking.
• “ICE” contact names: as a belt-and-braces fallback, rename your key contacts “ICE — [Name]” in the Contacts app. Some lock-screen dialers and all human responders recognise the ICE prefix instantly.
• Wear OS watch: if you wear a Wear OS watch, open its Settings > Safety & emergency (or the companion app) — most mirrors show the same medical info on the watch face and work even when the phone is in your bag.

Keep It Current: A 10-Minute-a-Year Habit

Emergency info quietly rots. Medications change, contacts change numbers, conditions get diagnosed or resolved. Protect your five minutes of setup with a tiny routine:

1. Update it the day a prescription changes — waiting “until the next review” is how stale lists happen.
2. Glance at it whenever your phone gets a major Android update (once or twice a year) and re-run the lock-screen test.
3. Check it before travel: add your destination’s emergency context to the notes if relevant (“Staying in Chiang Mai until 20 Oct, travel insurance via my emergency contact”), confirm roaming contacts include country codes (+66, +44…) so they’re callable from any network, and make sure your first contact will actually be awake in that time zone.
4. When you get a new phone, set it up during setup day, not someday. Data transfer moves contacts and photos reliably; medical pages move inconsistently between brands. Assume it’s empty until the lock-screen test proves otherwise.

Troubleshooting

There’s no “Safety & emergency” menu on my phone

• Use the Settings search bar: type medical, then emergency. On Android 7–11 the page often lives at Settings > Users & accounts > Emergency information or Settings > About phone > Emergency information.
• On Pixels, open the standalone Safety app — it reaches the same page even when you’re lost in Settings.
• If searches find nothing (some Xiaomi/regional builds), use the lock-screen signature workaround or a Medical ID app from the Xiaomi section above.

I saved everything but the lock screen shows nothing

• Test locked, not unlocked — the Emergency information button only exists on the locked emergency-dialler screen. Lock the phone first (see the test section).
• On many phones you must tap Emergency information twice; one tap shows a hint, the second opens it.
• Confirm you pressed Save after editing (Samsung/Pixels discard unsaved edits if you back out), then lock and retest. A restart after the first save also fixes a surprising number of “it saved but won’t show” cases.

Emergency contacts can’t be called from the lock screen

• The contact must be a properly saved contact with a phone number (email-only contacts can’t be dialled and may not appear).
• Check the contact is in the Emergency contacts list specifically, not just starred in the Contacts app — they’re different lists on most phones.
• If calls ask for unlock, your brand requires the contact in its ICE group (Samsung Contacts > Groups > ICE on older One UI) — add them there too and retest.

I need to add a contact who isn’t saved yet

The pickers on almost every brand only list existing contacts. Open the Contacts app, create the person with their number, save, then return to Emergency contacts > Add. Thirty seconds, done once.

My phone has Medical info but no Allergies/Medications fields

Some manufacturer forms are shorter (name, blood type, notes). Put everything else in Medical notes as plain lines: “ALLERGIES: penicillin (rash). MEDS: Metformin 500mg 2x daily.” Responders read the notes field; formatting matters less than presence.

It worked, then vanished after an update or new phone

Manufacturer updates occasionally reset the page, and brand-to-brand transfers rarely carry it. Re-enter it (the fields are fresh in your mind now) and re-run the lock-screen test. Treat “new phone day” and “big update day” as triggers to check.

Should I add info in two languages?

If you live in or are travelling to a place where English isn’t the medical lingua franca, yes — duplicate the critical lines (allergies, conditions, medications) in the local language in the notes field. Machine translation of “allergic to penicillin” is not where you want ambiguity.

Wrap-Up

Emergency information is the rare phone feature that matters most on the worst day and is invisible every other day. Five minutes — Settings > Safety & emergency > Medical info, name, allergies, medications, conditions, then Emergency contacts with two people who’ll actually answer, finished with a twenty-second lock-screen test — turns a locked glass slab into something that can speak for you when you can’t. Keep the page honest and current, respect its public nature by leaving out anything you’d mind a stranger reading, and repeat the same kindness on the phones of the kids and parents in your life. Set it up today, test it once, and then forget about it — that’s exactly how it’s supposed to work.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is emergency information on Android? It’s a lock-screen page — name, blood type, allergies, medications, medical notes, and callable emergency contacts — that anyone can view without unlocking your phone. It’s found under Settings > Safety & emergency and exists so first responders can treat you and reach your family.

Where is Medical ID on Android? Android splits it into Medical info and Emergency contacts under Settings > Safety & emergency (Pixel owners can also open the Safety app). “Medical ID” is the iPhone name for the same idea.

How do I add emergency information to my lock screen? On Pixel: Settings > Safety & emergency > Medical info, add your details and save, then add contacts under Emergency contacts. On Samsung: Settings > Safety and emergency > Medical info. On Xiaomi, search Settings for emergency; if there’s no medical page, add an ICE line via the lock-screen signature or a Medical ID app. Always finish by locking the phone and checking via Emergency call.

Can anyone see my emergency information? Yes — by design. Anyone holding the phone can open it from the lock screen without your PIN. Only put information you’d want a paramedic (or any stranger) to read, and never passwords, PINs, or financial details.

Does emergency information unlock my phone for responders? No. It opens just that one page and lets responders call your listed contacts. Your messages, photos, apps, and files stay locked.

How do paramedics find it? From the lock screen they tap Emergency call / Emergency, then the Emergency information / Medical info button (usually tapped twice). Setting yours up and testing that exact path is what makes it findable on your phone.

Should I include my blood type? If you know it for certain, yes — but hospitals verify blood type themselves rather than trusting a phone, so never guess. Allergies, medications, and conditions are far more important to get right.

Why doesn’t my Xiaomi phone have a Medical info page? Many HyperOS/MIUI builds omit Google’s editor. Search Settings for emergency first; if only Emergency SOS exists, write a compact ICE line into the lock-screen signature/owner info, or use a reputable free Medical ID app with a lock-screen display.

Do I need an app or an account for this? On Pixel, Samsung, and most other brands, no — it’s built in, free, offline, and account-free. Only Xiaomi-style builds without the built-in page benefit from a third-party Medical ID app.

How often should I update it? Whenever a medication, allergy, condition, address, or contact changes — and give it a ten-second glance after major Android updates, before travel, and when you move to a new phone, re-testing from the lock screen each time.