There are many great apps available for the iPhone, although arguably none quite as invaluable as bSafe, a small network of friends and family who can help keep you safe when traveling alone.
bSafe is the brainchild of Silje Vallestads, a mom concerned about the safety of her daughter who developed the app to keep track of her should she get lost, as well as provide her with an alarm to trigger in an emergency. Let’s find out how bSafe could help you and your family, and give you peace of mind.
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Getting Started
Creating an account is the first step to ensuring your safety, although you will be glad to hear that the registration process is quick and painless, requiring only your name, country, cellphone number, email address and password.
Once an account has been created, you are ready to add a Guardian.
Once an account is created, you are ready to add a Guardian or several. These are people who the app can contact in case of an emergency, and typically include a parent, partner or friend. Each person assigned as a Guardian will receive an SMS text message notifying them of their role, and encouraging them to sign up to bSafe, too, for their own safety.
Basic Features
BSafe is free to download and therefore somewhat limited in function — unless you subscribe to bSafe Premium. Nevertheless, even the free version could potentially save your life as it includes an SOS button that, when pressed, will notify your Guardians that you need help, and provide them with your exact location.
bSafe Free includes a Test button so that you can test the SOS feature.
BSafe Free also includes a Test button so that you can test the SOS feature from the comfort of your home. This will alert a maximum of four Guardians via SMS text message that you are testing the app and that there is no need to take action, as well as sound the alarm and display your location.
Going Premium
Upgrade your account to bSafe Premium for an annual fee of $19.99, or $29.99 for a two-year subscription. Subscribing to this service will grant you access to a number of additional features. Personally, I would like to see the option of subscribing monthly here too, as I rarely travel alone, therefore an annual subscription would be unnecessary. However, I do think that $19.99 is a reasonable price to pay for peace of mind, especially if you regularly hit the road.
Registering an account via the bSafe website will award you with a free 90-day subscription so that you can try out the app in its entirety. This is a great opportunity to sample bSafe Premium and will help you decide whether an upgrade would be beneficial to you and your family.
Why Upgrade?
BSafe Premium includes the following extra safety features in addition to those available with a free account:
I’m Here
Once you’ve reached your destination, tapping the I’m Here button will display your location on the map and notify your Guardians of your safe arrival. If you’d rather not notify every single Guardian of your whereabouts, individual people can be removed from the list by tapping the checkbox near their name.
Tapping the I’m Here button will display your location on the map and notify your Guardians of your safe arrival.
Follow Me
Guardians can track your every move via live GPS when the Follow Me option is activated. Simply specify one or more Guardians, and they will be sent a message containing a link to a map where they can follow your journey.
Follow Me can also sound an alarm if you do not reach your specified destination within a certain timeframe, with a countdown displayed along the bottom of the screen.
Fake Call
Tapping the Fake Call button will enable you to initiate a fake call, ringing any time from now or ten minutes in the future. You can assign a name to the call to make it look realistic, and it will appear on your iPhone just like any normal phone call would.
The Fake Call button will enable you to initiate a fake call.
Video
When the SOS button is pressed, a ten-second video will be recorded to document any crime being committed.
History
BSafe Premium will keep a log of all your activity within the app for future reference.
Design and Functionality
BSafe is incredibly simple to navigate and easily accessible in an emergency, which, of course, is of the upmost importance. Situated on the Home screen are five buttons, each one large in size for ease of use. I like the fact that the whole design is magnified larger than your average app interface as you can press the SOS button without actually looking at your iPhone, which is great if you do not wish to draw attention.
Conclusion
BSafe is an innovative way of keeping you and your family safe when traveling alone, although I highly recommend subscribing to bSafe Premium if solo travel is a regular occurrence as there are many more features available to ensure your safety than in the free version. As I previously mentioned, the ability to subscribe monthly as well as annually would be preferable here, and perhaps the inclusion of the Fake Call feature in the free copy of the app, too, in addition to bSafe Premium.
Overall, bSafe is a must-have app for, well, everyone, really. It is easily accessible, reasonably priced and could just well save your life.
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