iOS 16.4 may stop iPhone 14's Crash Detection calling for help for no reason

Apple has released iOS 16.4 to the public after weeks of beta testing. The new update adds a number of features and fixes a few bugs, one of which Apple will hope is a problem that caused emergency services to receive unneeded calls.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro devices support something called Crash Detection. It's a feature that should call emergency services when a car crash is detected similar to the way Fall Detection works when someone takes a tumble. But since the phones went on sale in September 2022 emergency workers have reported that they get calls when they shouldn't. This update might fix that.

With the release of iOS 16.4, Apple hopes to have fixed the issue. The update's release notes don't specifically say that's what is going on, but they do say that the update includes Crash Detection optimizations for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models. With that in mind, it seems pretty clear what Apple is doing.

The obvious thing now is whether Apple has tuned its algorithm too far the other way - will people wind up in crashes where their iPhone doesn't call for help when it should? Let's hope not, but we'll have to wait and see how things pan out to be certain.

As for other features in iOS 16.4, Apple has added more than 20 new emojis as well as support for push notifications sent by web apps installed on the iPhone's Home screen. The Photos app also supports finding duplicate photos and videos in iCloud Shared Photo Libraries for the first time also.

The new iOS 16.4 update is available for download for free now on any device that supported the original iOS 16.4 update.