Most women’s safety applications on smartphones provide a relatively easy way of notifying the user’s friends and family in times of distress. Another common feature is location tracking where a friend can easily monitor your movements.
Here is the list of top five popular apps:
Safetipin (Available on Android and iOS)
Safetipin rates safe and unsafe areas in a city based on its efficient tracking and rating system. Going to a new, unknown place and not sure as to how safe it is? Safetipin could be the answer to your worries. After you visit an area, you simply mark its safety level on the map; scores from different users then determine the overall safety level of that area. It also helps you to navigate to nearby hospitals, banks, pharmacys, fuel stations and more. The app helps you find a safe route to your destination. Apart from this really handy feature, it also has GPS tracking and basic SOS functionalities.
Besides English, the app is also available in Hindi on the Google Play Store as well as the iTunes App Store.
Nirbhaya: Be Fearless (Available only on Android)
Feel like someone is following you? Or that you are in trouble and can’t send an emergency message? Most women-security apps provide an easy method of sending notifications like double pressing the power button or tapping on the screen. What makes Nirbhaya: Be Fearless really handy is that you can simply shake your phone to send alerts. It ensures quick help for women in difficult times.
It supports features like GPS tracking. However, the stamp feature, which is supposedly similar to the safety score feature of Safetipin, doesn’t work very accurately.
App is available on the Google Play Store.
bSafe: Never Walk Alone (Available on Android and iOS)
Designed to keep track of your location always, bSafe helps you in more than one way. Its GPS tracking has a timer mode with an automatic alarm activation feature. So if you do not check in to the application for a predetermined time period, the app automatically sends out alert messages to your friends and family with your exact location. However, this feature is only available in the paid version.
You can also make your phone ring by configuring fake calls to temporarily disconcert the abuser or to escape from a bad date!
You can download the app from the Google Play Store or the iTunes App Store.
Circle of 6 (Available on Android and iOS)
Helping you in uneasy situations, Circle of 6, as the name suggests, is an app where you can add up to six people to your circle who can be alerted or contacted in case of an emergency. The app can be used to send different messages like requesting a ride home or requesting someone to show up and help you out of a hairy situation. It is very simple and intuitive. You need to pay for the full version. However, the free version supports most basic functions.
App is downloadble at the Google Play Store or the iTunes App store.
Vith U (Available on Android and iOS)
Quick and discreet to use, this app, guarantees safety at any given moment. Just remember to press the power button twice and alert messages are automatically sent out to preconfigured contacts every two minutes with your physical location. It’s a fairly simple app, but does not support sending messages with data connection.
It is a free app and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the iTunes App store.
Have you used any of these apps? How would you rate them? Leave a comment below or share your thoughts via Facebook.