Personal safety app for women sees surge in downloads

A personal safety app designed for women has seen 100,000 downloads after London killing, in a mere five days, shooting to the top of the free apps chart on the Apple App Store.

Walksafe, which is reportedly being downloaded 1,000 times in every 10 minutes at the time of the writing, features a map that shows crime figures taken from monthly police reports in the area, including sexual assault, mugging, knife crime, and pickpocketing, reports Techraders.

Users can then choose to avoid crime hotspots where possible, and the app will alert one when she/he is near these locations.

There’s also a HomeSafe feature, which lets you set an estimated time of arrival when you set off, and will send your location to an emergency contact if you don’t complete your journey in time. It’s a handy feature, and saves you having to text a friend or loved one every time you leave your home.

People can also set a reminder for emergency contacts to check in at a specific time, the report claims.

This TapSafe feature allows one to check in with their friends or loved ones if they’re feeling worried while out and about. These contacts will be notified as soon as one open the feature.

There are two buttons one can tap – ‘OK’, which requires the person to check in every 30 seconds, and ‘Nervous’, which needs to be tapped every 10 seconds before his/her loved ones are alerted again and shown his/her location.