**Emergency Calls and Telvio — What You Must Know** > Telvio cannot call 911, 112, 999 or any other emergency number. Why an internet calling app cannot carry an emergency call, and what to use instead. Source: https://telvio.app/legal/emergency-calls/ · updated: 2026-09-04 1. [Home](https://telvio.app/) 2. [Trust centre](https://telvio.app/legal/) 3. Telvio cannot call emergency services Safety # Telvio cannot call emergency services This is the most important page on this website. Read it before you need it, and make sure anybody who uses your phone knows it too. - No 911, 112, 999 or 000 - Applies in every country - Use your phone's own dialler Read this first **Telvio cannot be used to call emergency services.** Dialling 911, 112, 999, 000, 119 or any other national emergency number through the app will not connect you to help, in any country, under any circumstances. This is a permanent limitation of the service, not a fault and not something a setting can change. **In an emergency, use your phone's own dialler.** On every mobile phone, the built-in dialler reaches emergency services even with no credit, no data connection, and — in most countries — no SIM card at all. It is the only thing you should reach for. In force since September 4, 2026 ## Why an internet calling app cannot carry an emergency call An emergency call is not an ordinary call with a special number. When you dial an emergency number from a mobile phone, the network does something no app can do: it identifies which cell tower you are connected to, works out where you are, and routes the call to the emergency answering point responsible for that place. The operator who answers can see an approximate location before you say a word, and in many countries can request a precise one from the handset. An internet call carries none of that. What reaches our servers is a data connection from an IP address, which indicates a region at best and frequently a different country entirely if you are on a VPN or a corporate network. There is no cell tower, no serving network, and nothing that tells anyone where you physically are. A call routed on that basis would reach an emergency service in the wrong place, and every second spent explaining that is a second not spent sending help. The second reason is dependency. An emergency call has to work when other things are failing: no credit, a dead data plan, a network under load, a phone with no SIM. Telvio needs a working data connection and a positive balance, and both can be absent exactly when you need a call most. A service that works ninety-nine times out of a hundred is a perfectly good calling app and an unacceptable emergency service. This is not specific to Telvio. Every internet calling application faces the same constraints, and regulators in most countries require services of this kind either to provide verified location and network-independent access, or to state clearly that they do not support emergency calling. This page is that statement. ## What to do in an emergency 1. 1 ### Close the app and use the phone's own dialler The green phone icon your handset came with, not any calling app. It reaches emergency services directly through the mobile network, without credit and without data. On a locked screen, both iPhone and Android offer an emergency call option without unlocking. 2. 2 ### Dial the emergency number for the country you are physically in 112 works across the European Union and in many other countries, and on most mobile networks worldwide it is routed to the local emergency service. 911 covers the United States and Canada, 999 the United Kingdom and several Commonwealth countries, 000 Australia, 119 or 110 much of East Asia. If you are unsure, 112 from a mobile is the best single guess. 3. 3 ### Tell the operator where you are, first Location before description. An emergency operator who has a location can send help while you explain what has happened; one who has a description and no location can send nothing. If you are abroad, give the country and city before anything else. 4. 4 ### If you have no mobile signal, find another phone Any mobile phone, on any network, will place an emergency call — including one that is not yours and one with no SIM in most countries. A landline is better still, because it carries a fixed address. An internet call is the last thing to try, not the first. ## Where this matters most, and who to tell The risk this page addresses is not that you will forget. It is that somebody else will assume. A person who watches you make international calls from an app reasonably concludes that the app makes calls, and in a crisis reaches for the thing they saw working. That is most likely in exactly the households where an app like this gets used: shared phones, older relatives who were shown the app by somebody else, children who use a parent's handset, and people living abroad who are unsure which emergency number applies where they are. If any of that describes your situation, the two minutes it takes to say “in an emergency use the normal phone app, not this one” is the most useful thing on this page. It is also worth knowing the emergency number of the country you are in, before you need it. Travellers routinely dial the number from home. Many mobile networks will translate a foreign emergency number to the local one, but not all will, and it is not something to rely on under stress. ## What else the app cannot do, for the same reasons - **It cannot receive calls.** Emergency services frequently call back after a disconnected call, and they would be calling a number that does not accept incoming calls. Your own mobile number is the one to give. - **It cannot send or receive text messages.** Several countries operate an emergency SMS service for people who cannot speak or hear; it is reached from your phone's messaging app, never from here. - **It does not know where you are.** The app collects no GPS or precise location, by design and as stated in the [privacy policy](https://telvio.app/privacy/). That is good for privacy and it is one of the reasons emergency calling is impossible. - **It cannot reach short codes or national service numbers** of any kind, including non-emergency police lines, medical advice lines and utility fault numbers, which exist only inside their own country's network. - **It shows a number that is not yours.** Every call displays the app's own outbound number, so a call from it cannot be traced back to you by anyone who receives it — including a service you might need to identify you. ## If you are setting this app up for somebody else A large share of people using an app like this were shown it by a family member: an adult child installing it for a parent, somebody setting up a phone for a relative who has moved abroad. If that is you, three things are worth doing while you have the phone in your hand. Show them the phone's own dialler and say plainly that it is the one for emergencies. Save the local emergency number as a contact, so it exists somewhere they will look. And make sure their own mobile number still works for incoming calls, because that is the number an emergency service will call back on. If you would like this in writing to pass on, this page is stable and will not move. It is also available in every language this site is published in, which for this particular subject is the point of translating it at all. ## Bottom line Telvio cannot call emergency services, anywhere, ever. Dialling an emergency number through the app will not bring help. Use your phone's built-in dialler. It reaches emergency services without credit, without data and usually without a SIM, and it gives the operator a location that an internet call cannot. Tell anybody else who uses the app, particularly on a shared or a relative's phone. The danger is not that you will forget — it is that somebody else will assume. ## Frequently asked questions Can I call 911 with Telvio? No. Telvio cannot reach 911 or any other emergency number in any country. Use your phone's built-in dialler, which reaches emergency services even with no credit, no data connection and, in most countries, no SIM card. Why can a VoIP app not call emergency services? Because an emergency call depends on the network knowing where you are. A mobile network identifies your cell and routes the call to the right emergency answering point; an internet call carries only an IP address, which indicates a region at best and can be a different country entirely. What number should I dial in an emergency abroad? 112 works across the European Union and is routed to the local emergency service on most mobile networks worldwide, which makes it the best single guess when unsure. 911 covers the United States and Canada, 999 the United Kingdom, 000 Australia. Does Telvio know my location? No. The app collects no GPS or precise location data at all, as stated in the privacy policy. That protects your privacy and it is one of the reasons emergency calling is not possible through it. Can emergency services call me back on Telvio? No. The app places outgoing calls only and assigns you no number, so nothing can call you back on it. Give an emergency service your own mobile number, which is unaffected by using the app. Does this limitation apply in every country? Yes, without exception. It follows from how internet calls work rather than from local regulation, so no country, network or setting changes it. ## Related documents - [Report a call](https://telvio.app/legal/report-a-call/) - [What Telvio may not be used for](https://telvio.app/legal/acceptable-use/) - [Cookies on this website](https://telvio.app/legal/cookies/) - [Law enforcement requests](https://telvio.app/legal/law-enforcement/) --- HTML version: https://telvio.app/legal/emergency-calls/ Structured data for this site: https://telvio.app/api/v1/openapi.json · https://telvio.app/llms.txt Free to quote and reuse with a link back to the source URL above (CC BY 4.0).