The 999 phone charging myth is an

urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

that claims that if a

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

has low battery, then dialling

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Media Books * 999 (anthology), ''99 ...

(or any regional

emergency telephone number An emergency telephone number is a number that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency number differs from country to country; it is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and ...

) charges the phone so it has more power. This was confirmed as untrue by several British police forces who publicly cited the dangers of making such calls.

Basis

The basis for the belief was a feature of

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

phones: if the battery level was too low, the phone automatically locked down phone features and shut down the phone radio for all calls except to the emergency services. Phone users in the United Kingdom discovered that if they dialled 999 then immediately hung up, it would override the shutdown for several minutes so that phone calls could be made. The belief seems to have originated in UK BlackBerry forums around 2012. In 2015 telling

Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ...

on an

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

to "Charge my phone to 100%" would cause the phone to call the emergency services as a secret safety code. This was later traced to a bug in

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

programming that was fixed within a day. The urban legend continued to spread on social media as a prank.

Response

In 2013, Derbyshire Constabulary released a press release telling people not to believe the claim that calling 999 charges the battery. They cited that for every silent or aborted 999 call received, the operators have to call the person back to make sure there is no emergency. These silent calls waste police time that could potentially block responses to real emergencies. Bedfordshire Police also released information asking people not to call 999 except for an emergency as they stated that in the last six months of 2013 they had an increase in hoax 999 calls from people believing the urban legend. Other sources supplemented these press releases by stating that misusing the 999 number is illegal. They also stated that the police could cut off telephones being used to abuse the 999 service.

References

{{Urban legends Emergency services 2012 hoaxes Battery charging BlackBerry Limited Telephone crimes Misconceptions British urban legends