Five Types of Personal Safety & Emergency Alerts You Can Send

Contents:

1. How Do Personal Safety Devices and Apps Work?
2. Types of Alerts You Can Send from Safety Devices and Apps
3. What Alerts Are the Most Effective to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones
4. How AllsWell Alert App Enables Users to Send the Core Types of Alerts

 

Who to ask for help when an emergency happens, but no one is around? You may live alone, solo travel, commute from work, or do anything else when it hits. Single people and seniors are particularly vulnerable in such cases as they spend a lot of time on their own. Whereas in their thirties, a person spends on average 263 minutes per day alone, in seventies, this number reaches 463 minutes. Since the share of Americans living alone steadily increases, the problem is likely to aggravate. Hence, if you or your loved ones belong to this demographic category, you need to take preventative emergency measures.

Personal safety devices or apps are among the most effective ways to request help in risky situations. Depending on the nature of the threat, they allow initiating different types of alerts in real-time to reach emergency contacts.

Your task is to evaluate potential risks and to select the most suitable personal safety devices and applications. Since types of alerts vary among solutions, it’s a critical choice. Having the right alert opportunities can save your life.

To simplify it, here we’ve collected the core types of alerts. Learn what personal safety and emergency alerts you can send to pick the best personal safety devices for you.

How Do Personal Safety Devices and Apps Work?

Even though personal safety devices and apps serve the same purpose, they operate differently.  Personal safety devices are small-size alarms with buttons that enable owners to ask for help in different ways quickly. They can look like a led flashlight, keychain, and other small portables producing a loud sound to attract attention or sending medalerts when a holder clicks the button. Stun guns also belong to personal safety devices.

Note that if you want personal safety devices, you will need to spend from twenty to several thousand dollars depending on the functionality.

Personal emergency response systems (PERS) and safety apps are simpler alternatives to personal safety devices. Any smartphone user can download them. Since PERS and safety apps have broader functionality than personal safety devices, they are more convenient. You can call a friend, send an emergency message, or dial national emergency services. To initiate various types of alerts, PERS and safety apps leverage your smartphone’s capabilities, like SMS, phone calls, or online messages.

Types of Alerts You Can Send from Safety Devices and Apps

Categories of medalerts and safety notifications are closely related to types of imminent threats. They enable a person in danger to ask for help from friends and family or nation emergency services. Here are the most common alert capabilities you can use.

Alert Type #1. Panic Button

Panic buttons are available both in personal safety devices and apps. If it’s an app, a panic button will appear on your phone screen once you install the application. After you click it in an emergency, the app will send an SMS and email with your GPS location to selected emergency contacts. Panic button types of alerts are universal. You can send them as medalerts or when something threatens your or your loved ones’ security.

Alert Type #2. Medalerts

You can send these alerts in case of a medical emergency or when you need to inform your medical team about some critical health changes. Medalerts are often included in telehealth applications intended for remote care. You can also subscribe to receive medalerts, like covid-19 vaccine notifications, when you want to get news from healthcare organizations.

Alert Type #3. Personal Emergency Response System (PERS)

PERS notifications are supported by specialized personal safety devices. The PERS system consists of a radio transmitter, a console connected to your phone, and an emergency response center that manages calls. Transmitters are battery-powered devices you can wear on a belt, in a pocket, or around your neck. When you click the help button, the transmitter sends a signal to the console that automatically dials the necessary telephone number(s). After that, the emergency response center processes the call to detect the emergency reason. Thus, PERS notifications require specialized equipment and cannot be sent with a simple app.

Alert Type #4. SOS App Alerts

SOS alerts work similarly to panic buttons. These alerts are available in personal safety and emergency applications allowing users to notify emergency contacts in a click. You can adjust the content of the delivered messages depending on your needs, which makes SOS app alerts pretty universal.

Alert Type #5. Inactivity Monitoring

Inactivity monitoring is a relatively innovative safety app feature. It enables mobile phones to automatically send alerts to selected contacts when the smartphone owner remains inactive for too long. These can be safety, emergency, or any other types of alerts. The key point is that inactivity monitoring doesn’t require an action to trigger notifications. You just select the period of allowed inactivity (e.g., three or four consecutive hours during the day) and turn on monitoring. It can be life-saving in situations when you cannot reach the phone or press a panic button.

Apart from the listed types of alerts, some solutions enable users to receive notifications from public safety officials and emergency bodies. For example, presidential alerts sent in case of terrorist attack or invasion, wireless emergency alerts (WEA), amber alerts, and other integrated public alerts. They communicate information to the public on the state and local level, asking citizens to take action. The public alerts and warnings are usually delivered through SMS or other commonly used channels, not personal safety devices or apps.

What Alerts Are the Most Effective to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones

If you want to anticipate any risky situations, modern safety apps are more effective than personal safety devices and pepper sprays. They are cheaper, easier to manage, and, most importantly, support multiple kinds of notifications. But what apps are the best ones?

A quality app should combine panic button/SOS alerts and inactivity monitoring. It’s double protection. Thanks to such functionality, users will be able to initiate alerts boh manually, on their own, and automatically for inactivity emergency notifications. For example, when someone breaks into your house, you can use the app to dial 911 and send the GPS coordinates. At the same time, when you cannot reach the phone because you have fainted or someone took it from you, inactivity monitoring will come in handy. Once the app detects that you haven’t interacted with the phone for the selected period, it will send messages to your emergency contacts.

Besides, such multi-functional apps are suitable both for young adults living alone and seniors. You can protect yourself and stop worrying about the well-being of your loved ones.

How AllsWell Alert App Enables Users to Send the Core Types of Alerts

AllsWell Alert is a personal safety & emergency alert app for people living, commuting, or traveling alone. It combines the panic button functionality with inactivity monitoring, enabling the app to send your emergency contact an alert with your location even when you’re unable to press a button.

Subscribing to AllsWell Alert for just 9.99$/month, you get access to the main types of alerts you may ever need. It’s also a great choice to take care of your loved ones’ well-being and security.

Want to test AllsWell’s safety and emergency alerts? Click here to get your free 30-day trial access.