Personal Safety Apps that Send for Help
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GPS-enabled devices have ushered in an era when we expect our smartphones and tablets to not only tell us how to navigate to a vacation spot, but use our current location to suggest restaurants and let us “check-in” to places so our friends can see in real time what we’re doing.
But location-based features aren’t just for fun; they can be used for safety, as well.
If you’re concerned that someone you care about could be in danger, or if you worry about safety yourself, here are a handful of apps that can help.
StreetSafe
Unlike other safety apps that alert friends or family who may not be able to help in the event of an emergency, this iPhone app features a silent alarm that, when triggered, dispatches emergency help to your exact location. If you are feeling uneasy and want someone to stay on the phone with you until you arrive safely at your destination, you can also activate StreetSafe’s Walk With Me feature, which connects you with a trained Safety Advisor who will recommend the best course of action and alert the police if your situation escalates or you need immediate help. The StreetSafe service is $20 a month, $45 a quarter or $150 a year and works with iPhones, Android Phones and Windows Phones.
MyForce
Before using this one you need to complete an online profile that includes your photo and any medical issues you may have. Then when MyForce receives an alert from you, it dispatches the nearest emergency responders and transmits to them your profile information. MyForce also records audio coming from your phone and reports any updates or movement to the authorities. If you accidently send an alert the monitoring team will call you to make sure you’re not in danger and request a safe word. If you can’t provide your safe word, they take it as a sign of trouble and send help. MyForce is available for iPhone, Android or BlackBerry smartphones, and costs $12 per month or $119 a year.
bSafe
This free app lets users select personal Guardians, the people who will be notified when help is needed. All users’ guardians are alerted with an emergency SOS message that includes the sender’s location and a video recording by your phone, while a direct call is placed to one specified contact. The bSafe app, which works on iPhone and Android smartphones, also has a Follow Me Guardian mode, which invites Guardians to follow you live via a GPS trace as you walk home. You're notified when one of your Guardians accepts your invitation to follow you home. Or, you can use the Follow Me Timer mode, which will automatically send an emergency SOS message to all Guardians if a user doesn’t log out within a specific time period. This latter mode is great for late nights or your daily run—any situation when you don't want to invite people to follow you, but want an emergency message sent if you don't arrive safely. All of your Guardians need to have the bSafe app installed and create a bSafe profile.
Updated on 4/25/2014
Discussion 
Streetsafe keeps me safe
I use Streetsafe on Android and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the all supervisors and some of the operators are off-duty police officers.
The person who was on the phone with me had been with the police department for over 8 years and clearly knew what she was doing.
The text messages on the free apps are fine but if you find yourself in need of help, nothing give me more peace of mind than being tracked by a trained officer
Of all the apps listed
Streetsafe intrigues me the most. I prefer the idea of talking to a live person in case of an emergency, rather than relying on my phone to get everything right.
MyFlare
There’s undoubtedly a tremendous need for these types of apps, and these apps definitely are on the right track. However, each offers only a slice of the functionality and additional—and personal—layer of support that MyFlare provides its users. MyFlare is not just an app, it’s the most innovative mobile emergency response system available. I encourage you to explore MyFlareApplication.com and see for yourself.
Live person
Agreed Kyle. My girlfriend just got streetsafe and she also has one of those texting apps. She was so scared to use it coz she would either upset her mom or scare the heck out of her if she was out at night.
Having a live person who can do something is huge.
PulsePoint App
The PulsePoint app empowers everyday citizens to provide life-saving assistance by crowd-sourcing Good Samaritans. See http://pulsepoint.org/app
Looking for a FREE new security app - Guard My Angel
You may want to check out ‘Guard My Angel’
short intro video: http://youtu.be/oq-iCdrMFrg
more recent features like auto car accidents detection updated regularly on fb.com/guardmyangel
Looking for a new FREE personal safety app - SOSiality
Christina,
take SOSiality (http://tinyurl.com/d5hn5pm).
Protect you with it!!!
Cheers,
R
Virtual Community Watch
Safety is important. Take a moment to download http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/thats-suspicious-behavior/id490026152?mt=8. It is a virtual community watch and its FREE.
Help others in your neighborhood and community. Be Proactive.
The 1st personal safety app for blind and Visually impaired
Guard My Angel was adapted to visually impaired people
http://www.prlog.org/11967532
Go get it from (http://www.guardmyangel.com)
RunSafe
Hi Christina, I’d also like to mention RunSafe (http://runsafe.me) as another safety app that’s free to download. I built it after a scare I had earlier this year when my wife was out running with our son. In addition to the standard Panic features (siren, strobe, recording, etc.), you can set alerts to fire if you don’t return within a specified period of time. If an emergency does occur, the system automatically creates an Alert page that helps a community quickly collect and process information that is essential to a search and rescue effort. It also includes a Community Alert feature so that you can report anything that seems out of the ordinary. As an added bonus, it tracks your mileage, pace, calories, etc. when you’re out and about, whether your running, walking or biking.
As I write this, in the U.S. there’s a massive search underway for Hannah Graham, a missing student from the University of Virginia. To help with that search effort, we created an Alert page which can be found at: http://runsafe.me/hannah.
RE:SURE GO - brilliant
I recently started using this personal security app after a bad experience. I feel now i can go out in public knowing these guys are looking out for me. A real professional service, free to download and provided trial run. With one shake they phone me to see if i am ok while looking at video clips sent from my phone when i activate an alert. You set up a personal online profile with a security question to answer on contact. Great app and needs more praise.
IPhone as a MedicAlert device
I’m considering dropping my digital landline phone and replacing it with an iPhone. Since I couldn’t afford both (medi-alert system), is there a way to adapt an iPhone to double as a medical alert device?
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CPR
From Heather on January 18, 2012 :: 1:03 pm
Which first aid/CPR app do you recommend?
Reply