Google is focusing on personal safety with its latest software release. Its new Trusted Safety app allows users to easily send out their location to a specified group of contacts, while letting those contacts view and request information from them as well. These trusted groups are user-defined and can be changed at any time.
Minh Nguyen, a software engineer at Google, explains in a blog post, "you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family. Your trusted contacts will be able to see your activity status — whether you’ve moved around recently and are online — to quickly know if you"re OK."
These contacts can send requests for a person"s location which can be ignored by the intended person if there is no reason for alarm. In emergency situations, a response is automatically sent out after five minutes of no activity.
Google says this app works offline and will transmit a person"s last reported location in that case. Another feature allows users to have someone "virtually" walk them home, by sharing their path as they travel from one location to another.
The app is available for download from the Google Play store today and will be coming to iOS at a later date. Trusted contacts for any Google account can also be viewed on desktop through a browser.
Source: Google Blog