Not to ruin the joke, but I think you actually can text 911.
EDIT: Only in some places, not everywhere.
Sources: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/what-you-need-know-about-text-911
Also there is 112 for a lot of places that aren’t North America (and many more numbers).
I’m pretty sure in Germany text won’t work. But you could probably send a fax. Response times may vary.
My landline phone used to read out text messages sent to it. This made me certain that sending text messages to emergency numbers would be possible. But apparently not. The solution, for instance for deaf people, is really, no joke, to send a fax.
https://blog.devilatwork.de/notruf-per-sms-e-mail-oder-whatsapp-alternativen-zur-110-oder-112/ (German)
Luckily the Nora-App is in progress. It lets you send an emergency request (in germany) directly from the app.
Unfortunately it was temporarily taken out of the App Stores. But I have a (seemingly) working version on my phone and it seems to have everything you would need. (Only used it once in test-mode, tho. Luckily I never actually had to send an emergency request)
I suggest to all my fellow german lemmings to keep an eye out on https://www.nora-notruf.de/ and check it once in while.
Better to have the app (when registrations are open again) and never need it than vice versa.
For deaf people (in germany) there is also https://www.tess-relay-dienste.de/
My landline phone used to read out text messages sent to it.
Holy shit, I remember that. In a terrible robotic voice, but it was understandable.
I was really just trying to make a joke about the bad state of technlology of my home country … but it will probably work.
@generic @theKalash You can in the UK, but have to pre-register. It goes through the same relay channel that textphones for the deaf do.
While I see the use in this, I don’t know that I trust my typing skills in an emergency situation.
“My coworker is going into a diabetic coma” would probably become “I ranch horse is gonna enter diamond comma”. Between my anxiety and autocorrect, I’d be an even worse mess.
Reminds me of that scene from The IT Crowd lol
0 118 999 lives in my head. And the …3
🎶0118 999 88199 911 9725…3🎶
I had a bit of a tumble.
My wife has had employees get fired for calling out through texts instead of literally calling out.
It’s not an automatic thing, but it’s a no call no show.
I hate wordsing over the phone. It’s like my brain’s already decided what I’m going to say, so my brain decides I’ve already said it and moved on to something else entirely. Then it comes time to hand over the words so brain just half-asses it, and now I gotta rethink about what I’ve already thought, and it all just goes straight to shit. Fuck phone calls.
I can beat the phone-phobia by drawing doodles. Seems to keep the part of my brain busy and quiet that usually does the internal incoherent screeching. Plus it has the advantage of getting lots of funny doodles.
Just noting something that helped me (when receiving calls, especially for work): changing my ringtone to the Pokémon battle music
Now a call is something to be defeated!
Yeah, it’s stupid but at least it’s also dumb
Reminds me of a silly video I saw around here some time ago: https://yt.artemislena.eu/watch?v=cPKzPpbza3Q
Removed by mod
What about my “autistic”?
In the UK you can text 999 (our equivalent of 911), but you need to register first for some reason. https://www.emergencysms.net/
Probably because it’s wayyyy easier to abuse a text message service than a phone service. Think how many services allow you to trigger a text message just by saying you forgot your password. Or simply by logging in on a new device.
