Posted on 09/05/2015 6:20:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Tens of thousands of people around the world are now using a free personal-safety mobile app that allows friends to virtually walk you home at night.
The Companion app, created by five students from the University of Michigan, enables users to request a friend or family member to keep them company virtually and track their journey home via GPS on an online map.
Although they can do so, the friend or family member does not need to have installed the Companion app, which is available for both Android and iOS.
The user can send out several requests to different phone contacts in case people are not available to be a companion or not with their phones at the time.
Those contacted then receive an SMS text message with a hyperlink in it that sends them to a web page with an interactive map showing the user walking to their destination. If the user strays off their path, falls, is pushed, starts running, or has their headphones yanked out of their phone, the app detects these changes in movement and asks the user if they're OK.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
If you get assaulted all you need to do is hit them with your phone.
Might as well say Call Coroner.
Uses the accelerometers in the phone, apparently.
I think it’s a good idea that (to me anyway) benefits the parent/friend more than the pedestrian. They get to know she’s home and safe and can get a good night sleep.
I have another idea for an app. An app that tracks people using tracker apps. Then people can make a game of mugging all the misguided folks who think a tracking app will keep them safer.
Stupid feel good app. Apple cult members will embrace it in mass.
This will save time and money because you can find the dead body easier and quicker.
I wear my “walking home safely companion” on my hip. Bet mine is more effective than theirs.
There are few that come through in a pinch.
Wear it visible and it’s just like carrying an umbrella, it’ll never rain.
I guess with the release of 50,000 FELON ALIENS by this Administration, apps like this become necessary.
Hopefully President Trump will make this app go away.
Are we really at the point in our society where we cannot walk home without using a mobile app? I fear for the future.
A friend of mine travels a lot and if she's traveling at night, she'll sometimes send me a WAZE alert when she is on the road and I'm able to follow her home on my mobile device to make sure she gets home safely. Just a little blue dot moving through a map. I think that's pretty cool.
It's not that I stare at the screen the whole time but every few minutes I'll take a glance just to make sure the dot is still moving.
I see nothing wrong with this.
I think of it a little like using flight following when you are flying cross country VFR. It does not make your flight any safer but someone will know where to look for you if you have difficulty.
On the other hand I think that people tend to lose situational awareness while they are playing with their phones. This is especially true when people are driving. I wonder how many people have caused or got in accidents while playing with Google Maps?
This sounds like a ripoff of the bSafe security app which provides more functionality.
Bfl
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