Top 7 Safety Apps for 2019

When it comes to keeping your child as safe as possible, smart technology is a beneficial tool that has introduced dozens of options in the form of apps. Safety apps have been a major success in recent years, and for good reason too. The world can seem more unsafe now than ever, especially with living in an era of frequent mass shootings and terrorist attacks. Parents need to know where their children are going and provide them with tools to keep them safe in case of an emergency. Below we have listed several apps that we think are some of the best in terms of safety features.

• Life 360: Life360 is a freemium app that offers location sharing and many other features that help keep your family in touch and aware of where they’re going. A “freemium” app means it’s an app that can be used for free but there are other premium features that can be bought for use. On Life360, besides being able to track where your family members are, you can also set certain location spots such as “home” or “work” so you can receive notifications whenever someone arrives or departs from that spot. It uses smart notifications and will notify you whenever a family member is running low on battery. If you want to invest in the other features, you can also receive crash detection, roadside assistance, and weekly driving reports. These driving reports documents things like how many miles were driven, top speed, phone usage, hard braking, and driving statistics.
• FEMA app: Due to the risk of emergencies like mass shooters, terrorists, and bomb threats, both children and parents should have immediate access to information about how to prepare, survive, and recover from a threat. The FEMA app has information about many different types of scenarios that are not restricted to human threats. Their emergency safety tips include information about weather emergencies such as tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and extreme heat, as well as tips on power outages, fires, explosions, and pandemics, among others. It also has a whole section for disaster resources and even provides alerts for any emergencies in your chosen locations. You can manage what kind of alerts you want to receive.
• Red Panic Button: This app provides a single-touch panic button people can use to instantly send a Google Maps link to their emergency contact to let them know of their exact location. It can also access the user’s Twitter account to tweet an emergency message. This is unique since it connects social media. If the user is not able to get in contact with their family through the phone, their followers online can recognize the emergency and contact 911 themselves.
• Hollaback: This app relies on community insight to keep more people safe in the area. On this app, people can report instances of harassment or other possible danger in their immediate location and warn people to stay away from that place. You can look up where clusters of harassment have been occurring and access a feature that informs you of the rights you have in public.
• Bsafe: Bsafe is a pretty comprehensive app that has a lot of good features. It uses an SOS feature that can be activated by touch or by saying a certain phrase into the phone. Once the SOS is activated, the phone starts instantly recording and livestreaming whatever emergency is occurring, sends your emergency contacts your location along with the video, and can activate a loud siren to ward off an attacker.
• My Safetipin: This is another unique app that helps keep people navigating the streets safer. Whenever you are walking somewhere, this app will let you know if you’re entering a potentially dangerous location. These locations are ranked on a safety scale that’s decided by factors like diversity, transportation, lighting, visibility, security, and presence of sidewalks. You can also add your own rating based on your feelings to keep the location rating as accurate as possible. If you are stuck in a dangerous location, the app can find the safest route for you to go in order to get back to a normal location.
• Noonlight: Noonlight is an app that can help keep you safe both at home and while traveling. When you feel like you’re in danger, you can open the Noonlight app and start holding down the blue button. While you’re holding down this button, it signals that you are currently okay. If you take your finger off the button, it will turn red and ask you to type in your PIN number within 10 seconds. If you fail to do, the app will trigger a call to the police with your location, name, and even your medical information if you’ve added it into your phone.

So far in 2019, these are our favorite apps to keep families and children safe. A lot of these were originally designed with women in mind, but thanks to all of the amazing features they have, apps like the ones above can be applicable to any family member now. Choosing the right safety app for you depends on your family’s specific needs and the accessibility of the device. If you have trouble with unsafe streets, My Safetipin, Bsafe, or Noonlight might be the best choice for immediate access to help if needed. If you mainly want to track your children’s whereabouts, Life360 may be a better option. For general advice to keep everyone safe, the FEMA app and Hollaback can be great tools. It’s all up to your personal preference.