How to disable Emergency SOS call feature

Unfortunately, the June 2023 Samsung updates for Android 13 appear to have removed the ability to turn that off as described in that Android Authority article. Happens on my A42 5G after that update; my wife’s A42 5G still has the ability since she hasn’t updated. Same thing happened on my S21 5G after that update. I’m following  a couple Samsung subreddit threads to see if anyone discovers a workaround or fix.

What state has that law? Just want to know where not to move 😐

It's available on my Pixel 6 and the default is set to off.

It appears that turning count down off may now disable automatic initiation of emergency SOS calls while keeping other emergency features. Although specific to S23 users experiencing this problem, see the following and as it appears to be rolling out to other models:

https://www.androidheadlines.com/2023/06/emergency-sos-always-active-galaxy-s23-june-update.html

I’ll let you know after trying it (hopefully my state doesn’t have the same law as the OP’s).

FWIW, it does appear to work. At least it didn’t dial in my case. Pressing 5 times on the lock screen did bring up the Emergency call screen and sound that alarm, but required swiping to initiate the call and had the ability to cancel the emergency with no countdown showing.

Guess I’ll really see if the police show up in another half hour or more, I live way out and when I need emergency services they are only an hour away! I assume they aren’t coming since I haven’t gotten a call back.

Appears Google’s Pixel got the intuitive implementation right with Samsung making it no so obvious - par for the course with Samsung. You can also turn off the blaring alarm but at least it gives a clue as to what’s happened.

With the June 2023 Samsung update (just recently released) the landscape has changed as carriers and law enforcement struggle with a surge in false SOS calls that impact real emergency services. As noted above (as well as in the Android Headlines link), those who have applied the Samsung update should ensure that Countdown (as shown in the OP’s screen shot) is off to disable automatic initiation of emergency SOS while keeping the benefits of other emergency functionality.

Just verified again with my wife’s A42 5g after applying the June 2023 update - I defer her updates until I’ve vetted them. That update definitely changed the emergency SOS settings. Samsung’s implementation is good but Pixel’s is intuitively better based on gramps28’s screen shot.

When I tested using the 5 presses on the  lock screen, it became immediately obvious I’d done so and need to take an added step to actually initiate the call with Countdown off. Still appers a butt dial is still possible just less likely.