Google has now activated the Android Emergency Location Service (ELS) in India. This is a major development, and one that Android users across the country will appreciate. However, the ELS service is only full activated in one state of the country - Uttar Pradesh. The ELS is a simple service, which is integrated with the emergency calling system of the government/local authorities. In India, to make an emergency call, citizens are advised to dial 112 from their phones.
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So what's going to change with ELS in India?
Now when the citizens in Uttar Pradesh dial 112 from their Android device, their accurate location will be shared with the authorities. The location is accurate up to 50 meters, which is pretty nice. Even if the call is disconnected early due to any reason, the location will be triggered and shared with the authorities.
Uttar Pradesh has become the first state in India to fully integrate enhanced caller location into its 112 emergency services. We expect other states to follow this as well. However, since it is just for the Android users, iPhone users won't be able to get advantage of this. It remains to be seen if Apple would also work out something like this with the local authorities.
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One of the key concerns of ELS is privacy of the citizens. However, Google says that it has built ELS with privacy at its core. This will only activate during emergency calls, and is completely free of charge as well. The location data is shared directly from the user's device to the emergency services, and is never collected or stored by Google. This can be a game changer tech for citizens of India, especially when they are stuck in emergency situations and it's hard to share location of where they are.
