New emergency alert app hits market

Eye on me has been designed to alert friends if you’re in trouble, effectively turning your smartphone into a panic button. Once an alarm is set, a large trigger button is placed on the phone’s homescreen and when pressed, it automatically emails alert messages to friends and family asking for help. A second tap posts […]

Eye on me has been designed to alert friends if you’re in trouble, effectively turning your smartphone into a panic button.
Once an alarm is set, a large trigger button is placed on the phone’s homescreen and when pressed, it automatically emails alert messages to friends and family asking for help.
A second tap posts the alert to Facebook and Twitter, while a third and fourth opens the camera and takes photos.
Each alert is sent with location details and users are tracked on a map.
This app will come handy in Nigeria where kidnapping by criminals in the south and insurgents in the north are rife.
Over 100 secondary school female students in Chibok, Borno State, who were seized by insurgents more than twenty days ago, were yet to be rescued by security agents.
But the app also gives the option to set a deactivation code that switches off the alarm, and sends another message to friends informing them the user is okay.
The personalised message also contains the user’s exact location that can be tracked on a map.
Once the alarm is triggered, the icon flashes silently and it can also be triggered if the phone is shaken hard.
Alternatively, the alarm can be turned off, but the tracking options remain switched on.
Users select which of their friends can ‘follow’ them, and receive alerts. They can also request to follow their friends and family, and every registered follower is stored in the Settings menu.
However, people don’t need to install the app to follow others as the requests are sent via email.
The app is also useful for parents who want to track their children, for example.
If a friend triggers the alarm, the Eye-on-me safety app additionally has a messaging tool that lets users text each other and co-ordinate a rescue without having to swap phone numbers.
The Eye-on-me personal safety app is out now and is free until end of May, after which is it will cost $1 (about N165).