We’ve all been in that situation when we are not quite sure if we feel completely safe. You may be walking to your car late at night after pulling in a long day at the office. You might we walking across campus to your dorm after a late study session. Your flight was delayed and now you have to take a cab, by yourself, late at night, to the hotel.
There are many situations that can make us feel uneasy and there are lots of apps out there that let you send alerts and messages to your contacts so you can let them know where you are, but My SOS Family is one that sends the message directly to your contacts, without using an answering service.
My SOS Family is free to download and comes with a variety of subscription programs that cater to your needs. If you are not sure whether this app is the right one for you, opt for the one month trial period for just $4.99. It won’t auto renew, which is nice to see. You could also sign up for the monthly subscription at $3.49/month, allowing you to stop when you feel like it, without losing much cash. If you like the app enough to keep it, subscribe to the annual plan for just $33.99/yr.
So, what does the app provide? You can quickly send an SOS alert with the tap of a button or an alert to Siri. The system can send one of its own built in messages or you can create customized ones to send out. I was not sure of the purpose of this, but you can also set up a timer to send the SOS message at the end of a countdown. Another way to discreetly send an alert is to setup earphone button alerts. You can define a list of recipients who can receive alerts from you. Once this is set up, you can configure the app to send the alerts to all of your contacts or to a series of them, one at a time.
After sending alerts and if all is ok, there’s a button that allows your device to send out an email letting your contacts know all is well. Bottom line, My SOS Family allows for silent and discreet notifications to let your loved ones know you may need some help or that danger is imminent, without alerting the potential attacker. If you want, you can also upload a photo of yourself to the app which gets sent out with each alert, so recipients know even faster who is reaching out to them.
An easy to use app that can keep you from harm, the app as it stands is fully functional and quite useful. I think it would be nice to have a way to prioritize your contacts so you could easily send out alerts to those who could react faster to you based on your location and proximity to them.
My SOS Family is an app that should be on your phone if you don’t already have it. It’s most useful for anyone who could find themselves in situations where they could be in danger, or even for elderly so they can alert their loved ones for some assistance. Either way, it’s a great app to have.