The call comes in. The voice is panicked, fragmented by noise and fear. “I’m stuck… the building…there’s a fire.”

The 999 telecommunicator is listening intently, coordinating a complex rescue and delivering life-saving instructions. But they are often asked to act without seeing the situation — operating with limited or fragmented information. This is an emergency response challenge that costs lives.

Today, RapidSOS is announcing that Apple Emergency SOS Live Video is now available in Brazil through RapidSOS Unite. RapidSOS was the first platform to enable this capability in the United States with the release of iOS 18 in September 2024 — and is now bringing the same technology to emergency communications centers across Brazil.

During an emergency call, if the telecommunicator determines that seeing the scene would help, they can send a request directly to the caller’s iPhone. The caller will see a prompt on their screen, and with a single tap can choose to securely share their camera’s live video. The feature is encrypted by default. The caller is always in control — they can stop sharing at any time.

For over a decade, public safety agencies have shaped and guided RapidSOS’s technology and product roadmap. Through that journey, 190 has taught RapidSOS that video is transformative only if implemented correctly: it must be initiated by a trained telecommunicator, contextualized by other data feeds, triggered by a single caller action, and interoperable for field responders.

• Faster, Smarter Decisions: Context-rich video allows telecommunicators to instantly assess severity and guide resources more accurately and effectively than ever before.

• Live Video from the Scene: Complement EMD protocols by giving 190 professionals clearer situational cues to confirm safety and deliver the right pre-arrival instructions — even in fast-changing emergencies.

• Enhanced Responder Safety: Providing ground-level situational awareness before arrival means first responders are never walking into the unknown.

• Resilience and Interoperability: Live video provides a resilient, redundant pathway for information sharing during large-scale incidents when phone networks are under strain.

“When a caller says, ‘black male, blue hoodie,’ that’s half the school. But within minutes, she sends live pictures through RapidSOS — now I’ve got shoe brands, backpack logos, specific identifiers. That’s not just better data — that’s real-time intelligence,” said Patrick Lea, 911 Telecommunicator, Spartanburg.

“Apple Emergency SOS Live Video represents a fundamental shift in how emergency services can protect the communities they serve. RapidSOS was proud to be the first platform to enable this capability in the United States, and we are committed to bringing that same life-saving technology to emergency services around the world,” said Michael Martin, founder and CEO at RapidSOS. “Apple’s investment in public safety — and their trust in RapidSOS as the platform to deliver it — is a testament to what’s possible when technology is built in true partnership with the heroes who rely on it most.”