“Text me when you get home!” This is a phrase I have said or heard numerous times when leaving a friend’s, a dinner or heading home. And even though we all know that is for our safety, we don’t always follow through with making or checking in on that text.
The new app KITESTRING is intended just for this. Kitestring is a service (I called it an app but technically it’s a web-based service that works with any smartphone) that you can use to check in with you and, if you are in a dangerous situation, will notify contacts that you select ahead of time with a text or email.
Here’s how it works: Let’s say you are about to walk home from dinner at night, alone. Tell Kitestring a time frame of when to check in on you. If you don’t reply back when it checks your status, it’ll alert your emergency contacts with a custom message.
Here’s why it’s better than other options: Kitestring doesn’t ask you to press anything or shake your phone or check in if there is a problem. Because, if something were truly wrong, you wouldn’t likely have time! Instead, Kitestring counts on inaction (if you don’t reply to its check-in) to become aware of problems. But if you aren’t home yet when it checks in on you, you can just press a button that serves like a “snooze” button for the check in. Then it will check-in again later to make sure you are home.
Tips for best usage: Make sure your emergency contacts know that you are using Kitestring and will be paying attention to their phones!
Let us know if you’ve used Kitestring or any similar apps. And be safe!
By Meredith Red
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