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Google shared on Tuesday that its Emergency Location Service (ELS) is now available in India for certain Android devices. This allows individuals in an urgent situation to call or text emergency responders, like the police, medical teams, and firefighters, and ELS will send their exact location immediately after it is activated. Uttar Pradesh is the first state in the country to implement ELS on Android devices. This feature was previously made available to devices operating on Android 6 and later. However, for ELS to work, local authorities must connect it with their services. The tech company mentioned that it has enabled its ELS function on Android smartphones in India, which assists users in sending their location through a call or text to receive help from emergency responders, such as police, healthcare personnel, and firefighters. Google explained that ELS on Android collects information from the device’s GPS, Wi-Fi, and mobile networks to accurately find the user's location, claiming it can pinpoint a person's location within 50 meters.

Nonetheless, the ELS feature needs local wireless and emergency service operators to turn on their support for it to work. Uttar Pradesh has become the first state in India to successfully activate this service for Android devices. The state police, working with Pert Telecom Solutions, has linked ELS to the emergency number 112. This is a free service that only tracks a user's location when someone calls 112 from an Android phone. Additionally, the tech company stated that ELS has been made available on all compatible devices running Android 6.0 and newer. So far, the company reports that ELS has helped place over 20 million calls and SMS messages, even when a call disconnects moments after it starts. ELS operates through Google’s machine learning-based Android Fused Location Provider. Google also noted that this feature is exclusively for emergency service providers and does not store or share the exact location data with the company. Therefore, the location information is sent directly to the relevant authorities.

Recently, Google introduced the Emergency Live Video feature for Android devices. This feature allows users to share their camera view during emergencies with responders while on a call or texting. However, the emergency service provider must ask the user for access to this feature. When the responder requests a video, a prompt will appear on the user's screen. With just one tap, they can agree to share the visual feed.