Let Your Phone Walk You Home At Night
There are countless apps and websites that assist us in basically every facet of our 21st century lives, from dating to cooking eggs and ordering the groceries. Looking out for our safety on a late night walk or the journey home from a club can now be added to that list, with the rise of tech such as Kitestring and Companion. While it would be desirable to live in a world where there is no danger, the fact is this is not the case, and here is where tech such as Kitestring and Companion come into play, virtually “walking you home.”
Kitestring is an SMS-based personal safety service that was created by 23-year-old Stephan Boyer. After registering for the service, you set an emergency contact — a friend, family member, whoever. You can then customise a message that will be sent to the contact in the event that you end up in danger.
When you’re about to head out for a walk or journey home from a night out on the town, you set an ETA for your return, and choose intervals at which the app will check up on you — every 15 or 45 minutes, 2, 5, or 12 hours.
To check that you are safe, Kitestring will send you a text message. If you don’t respond to the message, the service will send your emergency contact an SMS stating that you may not be safe.
You can also set up a duress password for any instance where you are in danger and an attacker has gained access to your phone. This duress code makes it look like you are telling Kitestring that you are safe, so as to not alert your attacker to anything, but it actually sends an emergency alert to your contact.
Companion app is designed with the same intentions in mind, but with a slightly different execution to Kitestring. Companion was created by five students from the University of Michigan and allows you to choose a friend or family member to “virtually walk you home.” The contact is sent a message requesting their availability (they don’t even have to install the app), and upon their confirmation, Companion sends them an interactive map which tracks your journey via GPS. If you stray from your intended path, start running, or fall, the app prompts you with a message, “Are you okay?” If you respond within 15 seconds, all is well, however if you don’t, the app will set off a loud alarm from your phone and present an immediate option to call the police. Companion will also send an alert to your emergency contact, with your location and a suggestion that they call you or the police.
You can sign up for Kitestring for free here, and download Companion here.
