Notion Ink has announced a new mobile application called imShakti, which aims to help the user get the help in emergencies as soon as possible. The imShakti App is still in beta stage and is available for free from the Google Play Store.
During critical situations, one might be panic and face difficulty to recollect emergency contact immediately. In such cases, the imShakti app helps by sending an emergency SMS to the specified contact. The SMS contains details location from where the SMS was sent. For detecting accurate location, the app requires the user to keep the GPS services on. Else the app takes approximate location based on the nearest cell tower as co-ordinates included in the SMS.
To send an SMS in an emergency, the user needs to press the power button five times in two seconds. The app basically detects the screen’s off and on intents to initiate the message sending process. The app also allows customising the emergency SMS by adding the location manually. Also, some text templates help adding more meaning to the SMS.
One interesting option is to conserve battery life by turning off all connectivity services, push down the brightness to the lowest and kill all running apps.
Notion Ink clarifies that the privacy of its users very seriously, and given the intended use of the application, it is important that information like the location of a person be accessible only to whom the users wish to send it to. There is no back up taken on the location or phone numbers, or number of times the application was used to send SMSes. The application is self sustaining and does not require or utilize a server on the backend to run.
Check out some of the safety apps meant for women and others here.