Apple's Medical ID feature helps man return lost iPhone at sea to owner

Losing devices like iPhones or Apple Watches at sea is more common than we think (many similar cases have been reported before). But while owners often use Apple's Find My to recover their devices, this case is a little different. An iPhone lost at sea was returned to its owner thanks to the Medical ID feature.

How Medical ID Helps Recover an iPhone Lost at Sea

According to Thiago Itagaki in a Threads post, he was swimming at Maresias, a beach on the coast of São Paulo, Brazil, when he found a lost iPhone. According to him, the iPhone was "about 3 meters deep" in the water and "about 10 meters from the sand." Thiago searched the beach for the phone's owner, but no one claimed it.

"The phone was completely dead. It also had a case with three credit cards. I tried to find the owner's name but couldn't find the real owner ," said the man who found the phone on the beach. Thiago waited until the iPhone was completely dry before plugging it in to charge, and luckily the phone still worked. Then he came up with the idea of ​​​​finding the owner using the Medical ID feature.

For those who don't know, you can set up Medical ID on your iPhone, which allows anyone to see important information about you, even without a password, in case of an emergency. This includes things like allergies, blood type, and emergency contacts. This last option was crucial in helping Thiago find the iPhone's owner.

'I called a person called 'Love' and was able to get in touch with the owner of the phone. The couple are from São Paulo and they are not even in Maresias anymore. The owner lost the phone on New Year's Eve and it had been in the water for four days, but it was still working. I thought the phone had only been there for a few hours, but it had actually been several days.'

Thiago later said the owner was 'extremely grateful' for his kind gesture. The man told 9to5Mac that he never thought the story would 'get so much traction', as it had already received thousands of likes on Threads. 'People often lose their phones in very unexpected places ,' he added.

It's worth noting that iPhones have been water-resistant since the iPhone 7. However, this certification only guarantees water resistance at a certain depth and for a limited period of time.

But the biggest lesson here is to keep your Medical ID updated with emergency contacts—it could save your phone one day. To find your Medical ID, open the Health app and tap your profile picture at the top of the screen.

Kareem Winters

Update 07 January 2025