SOS appearing on your iPhone? Here's what that means and how to change it

Editors' Note: Verizon appears to be suffering an outage in the U.S. on January 14, 2026, which may explain the appearance of the SOS alert on your iPhone. See our Verizon outage live blog for more details.

If the words SOS are showing up in the status bar of your iPhone, that means you don't have any cellular connectivity. And that can be pretty frustrating if you know you're somewhere you should be getting a signal.

Essentially, that's what it means when an SOS appears on your phone were cellular bars normally appear — you've got no network connection. That's less of a problem if you've got an iPhone 14 or later — including the iPhone 17 models released last fall and last year's iPhone 16e release. They've got built-in satellite connectivity to send emergency texts thanks to a feature Apple's included with those devices. But older iPhones are out of luck.

Likewise, it's possible your wireless carrier includes satellite connectivity as part of your plan. T-Mobile added that feature last year, for example; SMS texting is even available to customers from other wireless providers with an eligible phone.

For that reason, it's not necessarily worrisome if you're in a remote area that's known to have poor reception — say, if you're on a hike or traveling out in the middle of nowhere. But should the SOS indicator pop up at other times, it's a problem you'll want to troubleshoot.

The most likely explanation for that SOS indicator is that your wireless carrier is experience a disruption to its service. If you see the SOS alert pop up in places where you should have coverage, you can confirm with Down Detector whether your phone carrier is having issues — assuming you can get a connection via Wi-Fi, of course.

If the problem's not the carrier's service, there are a couple quick fixes you can try to get your phone to recognize the cellular connection. I'd start by toggling the cellular data control and then restarting the phone if the trouble continued and the SOS notification was lingering.

Here's how to follow those steps if you see an SOS alert when your iPhone should be connected.

The Cellular Data icon is labeled, and it's green in iOS 26, as opposed to the other blue icons. Tap the box to turn it off, and tap again to reconnect.

If the problem continues after these attempts to fix it, the issue may be with your SIM card. At that point, you'll need to contact either Apple or your wireless carrier for help.

We have additional hints and help for iPhone users. If you're new to the Apple's latest devices, we can point you toward the 5 hidden iPhone features you should try out. We also look at the 10 iOS 26 features you should check out to learn all about Apple's latest iPhone software.

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