Why You Should Get the Companion App and Never Walk Home Alone
We all know the situation: we are on our way home from a night-out, we are alone, it’s late, it’s dark, and we might be not exactly sober. It can be frightening, especially when you are a girl. Reports of spiked drinks or taxi drivers assaulting passengers do not make us feel any better in this regard.
We want for ourselves and the people around us to get home safe after a night-out together, but to actively ensure that desired safety can be tedious.
The good news is, there is a great way now to accompany friends on their way home, and the other way around, to get a friend to accompany you on yours, without the necessity to actually be together. A brilliant, free safety app called Companion lets you keep your eyes on each other from the very start of a trip until the save arrival.
Its functionality is simple and effective. First, you choose which friends you want to be your companions (it can be one, or as many as you want), then you set your destination and select the mode of transportation (on foot, car, bicycle or public transportation).
Anyone in your contact list can be your companion. If they have the Companion app installed on their phone, they will be notified via push notification. If they don’t have, they will receive an SMS text message with a link to a live map of your trip.
The companion watching over you can see your movement on the map in real-time and has a button to directly call the person being watched.
In case you have privacy concerns, worry not: For each individual trip, users must give permission to a contact before they can track your location and users can end a trip anytime which revokes the ability of companions to your location.
During a journey, the person on the move has two buttons: the “I Feel Nervous” button, to collect information about areas they feel unsafe (the information will be shared anonymously with local authorities to help them understand that certain city areas need attention), as well as the “Call Police” button which will inform the police about their emergency situation. There is a “SafeCheck” function, that requests you to mark yourself as safe when arriving at your destination, which requires the entering of a PIN code.
Additionally, the app has a sophisticated real-time alert system that can detect when you may be in a sketchy situation. If you don’t arrive on time, start heading in the wrong direction, start running abruptly or have your headphones yanked out while they’re in use, the app will check with you to make sure you’re okay. If you don’t respond in 15 seconds, the automatically alerts your Companions.
There is even a “Wander Mode” in case you just go out without a specific destination, such as running. You can choose to have the app suggest you to start a trip whenever you’re on the move: either always, only after 8pm or never.
The app does not drain your battery and uses the same amount of battery as apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat.
