Android - What is an "Emergency Call," and can I set number for it?
Yes, it's limited to emergency numbers. It depends on your region and probably your carrier which ones specifically.
There's no easy way to change it. While it's probably possible to hack that mode, I would advise against it. First because it defeats the purpose of having your phone locked (do you really want someone to steal your phone and call your wife?), second because it might screw things up when you really need it (and you can't exactly test whether 911 is working beforehand), and third because you should have ID with you anyways if you're concerned about this.
The purpose of that feature is so that if there is an emergency you can dial an emergency number (911) without having to unlock the phone. Its not so that someone else can use it to call your wife/mother/ICE number. It's not a bad idea since if you were hurt then someone else could inform those people but as I understand its just for emergency numbers (although to be honest I don't know of any other emergency numbers other than 911).
Edit: I just realized that if you lost your phone you wouldn't want others to be able to make calls from the phone (another reason why it only allows emergency numbers). However if, as you suggested, it only allowed certain numbers... that would be cool.
Some versions of Android make it possible to add additional emergency call numbers. The functionality for doing so has been removed in the latest versions of Android. These instructions only work for pre-Jelly-Bean version phones.
The instructions for doing so come from this AndroidCentral forum
- Go to your contacts
- Select the "Groups" tab
- Select "ICE - emergency contacts"
- Use the icon to the right of "Find contacts" (a silouette with a plus sign) to add an emergency contact.
- Select an existing contact from your contact list, or enter the details of a new contact.
- All the contacts in this "ICE" group will be available from the lock screen, so you can call them without unlocking the phone.
While you can add emergency contacts, there is no easy way to remove or alter the default (911 in the USA) emergency contact.
emergency contacts http://img.tapatalk.com/add8089c-98c8-5e08.jpg