Huawei endorses govt's move to add in Panic buttons on smartphones

Smartphone maker Huawei and its sub-brand Honor on Thursday welcomed government’s decision to make a panic button mandatory for all mobiles phones from next year. The move aims to help improve security of women and assist law enforcement agencies, it said. “Our research and development center in Bengaluru innovated this functionality and today, Honor smartphones sold in the Indian market already come embedded with a SOS feature,” the company said in a statement. “All our smartphones are equipped with in-built GPS systems to provide assistance to our customers at any given time. Last year, we introduced SOS feature in all our smartphones to ensure women safety. The SOS feature which sends instant messages to three pre-set numbers,” Allen Wang, president of consumer business group, Huawei Telecommunication India said. Other phone makers such as LeEco and Karbonn seem to echo the sentiment. According to Atul Jain, COO, smart electronics business at LeEco India, this is a welcome step not only for the safety of women but also for every citizen who may be in distress and it is feasible for the manufacturers to re-configure the upcoming devices with panic button. “I think it is possible for manufacturers to have a panic button for new phones that are going to be launched in the next year,” Jain told IANS. If you have a mobile phone, you can either press numeric key ‘5’ or ‘9’ to invoke emergency call. In a statement, Karbonn Mobiles said that the decision by Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is a step towards harnessing the full potential of mobile devices which could be a potent tool in ensuring women’s safety. “Karbonn Mobiles has already been working on developing a mobile SOS app for women which we would be unrolling for Karbonn customers over the next few months,” the smartphone maker said. With inputs from IANS