Having the right safety apps on your phone could save your life. Every day, countless Americans are victims of crime and many more are in car accidents, suffer falls, or have a medical emergency.

While no app can guarantee to stop a crime or prevent an accident, they can get you the help that you need a lot faster. In this guide, we’re going to take a look at the essential safety apps that can help keep you safe.

Are you ready to learn more about these (often-free) apps that could save you? Then read on!

1. One Scream

If you like to go out on your own or if you live in a dangerous area, this is an essential app. One Scream activates your microphone while you’re out and listens for your scream.

If something happens that causes you to scream, the app will notify a list of contacts about what’s happened and provide your location. This is on a 20-second timer, too, so that if something innocuous makes you scream, you can stop it from notifying your contacts.

This app is available on both iOS and Android.

2. Red Panic Button

If you’re in a situation where you can’t scream but you still want to make sure your location is known, Red Panic Button could come in handy. This app creates a Google Maps pin of your location and sends it out to a list of contacts when you press the titular button.

If you want to, you can also set it to send emails to a list of contacts, or have it post your location to Twitter or Facebook. This app is also available on both iOS and Android, and it works on Apple Watches too.

3. Kitestring

Let’s say that you’re going on a date with a stranger. Staying safe is very important, yet you don’t want to have a friend sounding the alarm if you forget to text them often enough.

Kitestring is the solution. This app texts you and then checks in on you every so often: if you don’t reply, it will notify an emergency contact and tell them that you’re not responding.

This service is available on both Android and iOS, but it’ll even work on older phones, as it’s a text-based service.

4. Waze

Waze is an incredibly popular app for drivers. It’s one of the few navigation apps that can compete with Google Maps, and is loved the world over due to its regularly updated, crowdsourced navigation.

However, it’s more than just a map. It also keeps track of your speed. If you break the speed limit, Waze will set off an alert. What’s more, GPS speedometers tend to be more accurate than those in your vehicle’s dashboard.

5. bSafe

bSafe is an incredible app that offers a whole suite of different safety features. You can activate it with your voice or via your phone’s touchscreen, and it can record your surroundings and let other people follow your movements via GPS.

However, what sets it apart from the other apps that we’ve mentioned so far is that it also comes with a fake call feature. If you’re being bothered by somebody and you need to make a fast exit, you can make it appear as though you’re getting a phone call, so you can “answer” it and then make your escape.

6. Drivemode

Distracted driving is a serious danger. The minute you stop focusing on the road while you’re driving, you’re in danger, and you’re endangering other people too. Drivemode eliminates some of the biggest distractions that you’ll face while driving.

Drivemode will simplify your phone’s layout so that only a handful of apps are available to use, which can massively reduce your risk of being distracted. It also gives you speed limit alerts, so if the speed limit changes, you’ll know it and can slow down as necessary.

7. Urgent.ly

Roadside safety is a crucial part of driving. If something goes wrong with your car or you’re in an accident, you need to be able to get assistance fast. Urgent.ly is a bit like Uber for roadside assistance.

If you have an accident or if something goes wrong with your car or truck, you can enter the details of what’s wrong, such as your vehicle model and what you think is wrong, and wait for someone to respond to you.

This means that even if you don’t have a roadside assistance membership through the AAA or similar, you can get help.

8. Shake2Safety

If someone is threatening you or if you think they’re dangerous, calling attention to your call for help can have bad results. Shake2Safety is an app that recognizes this and allows you to activate it using more subtle movements like shaking your phone or repeatedly pressing the power button.

If you do this, it will send a message to certain contacts on your phone and can also capture video and audio recordings of what’s going on. The subtlety is a massive benefit here: it can help keep you safe without alerting your potential attacker.

These Safety Apps Could Save Your Life

While installing safety apps may seem unnecessary, all of the apps that we’ve mentioned come with features that could potentially save your life. Whether you’re a driver who wants to eliminate distractions or just want to feel safer when you go on that first date, these apps can help you.

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