For years I've had the need for a location based safety app, and have not found what I was looking for. (A few weeks back, I asked others here what they were using, and that didn't give me a solution either.)
So I decided to make my own, miaalert.com - see signature for link. The site is currently live and free to use; so give it a try if you like.
I've created a basic app that does exactly what I needed, but I'm hoping there are others out there with ideas they'd like to contribute. So I'd like to ask for your help and inputs.
What's different about what I have so far:
What I have:
What I'm thinking about:
That's it. What do you think? Do you have ideas? Note, there is no payment, now or in the future, for any ideas you provide. But, you may get a service that provides just what you asked for :)
Paul
2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)
So I decided to make my own, miaalert.com - see signature for link. The site is currently live and free to use; so give it a try if you like.
I've created a basic app that does exactly what I needed, but I'm hoping there are others out there with ideas they'd like to contribute. So I'd like to ask for your help and inputs.
What's different about what I have so far:
- It's not an app, its a website. Nothing to install, runs anywhere.
- Alerts are processed from the servers, not your phone. So alerts fire even if: you phone breaks, your battery runs out, you lose cell coverage, etc. But you can use the website from anywhere where you can login to the internet to manage your alerts. (This feature is important: If you go into an area without cell coverage, and get stuck/injured, the alert fires and has your location as of when you lost cell coverage.)
- The alerts are generally "passive"; nobody is notified unless your alert expires.
- The recipients of your alert do not need an account to receive or view your alerts.
- These last two are also different from a lot of the current options, where people are tracking you all the time, and everyone has to have an account on the same app.
What I have:
- Basic 'set a timer, send alert to someone if I don't cancel the timer before it expires'. This can be done from any device, no smartphone required.
- Above, but using a smartphone and providing location tracking since starting the timer.
- Above, and you can send a link to anyone which lets them track your location, live, even prior to the alert.
What I'm thinking about:
- Alert on being stopped. (In this case, stopped also means the server quit getting location data from your phone.)
- Auto-cancel alert on reaching a destination.
- With auto-cancel on reaching a destination, I could then implement multi-point alerts. I.E. "Alert if I don't get to point A in 1 hour, then alert if I don't get to point B within 30 minutes after that, etc.
- Since I'm capturing location data I could save a GPX file for later upload to Strava, Garmin, etc.
- Display a running/cycling computer interface on the phone. (Interfacing with BLE devices is possible, but not ANT+)
- Boundary alert. (This is more of a "family" type alert. I.E. let me know if my kids go beyond some point. So doesn't really fit with my use case, but maybe...)
That's it. What do you think? Do you have ideas? Note, there is no payment, now or in the future, for any ideas you provide. But, you may get a service that provides just what you asked for :)
Paul
2015 USAT Long Course National Champion (M50-54)