StandingBy is not an emergency service. If you or someone else is in danger, call 911.

StandingBy

How it works

Check in, or your people get contacted, in the order you chose.

StandingBy is not released yet. This page describes how it is designed to work, and we will update it if that changes.

StandingBy is not an emergency service. It does not contact 911, and nobody watches your session. It tells the people you chose that you have not checked in. If you are in danger, call 911.

Setting up

  1. Choose the situation

    Start from a ready-made profile for common situations, like a night out, or build your own. Each profile is saved on your home screen, so next time starting one takes a tap and a confirmation.

  2. Decide how often you will check in

    Either every so often, such as every 45 minutes, or at times you set.

  3. Choose your people, and the order they are told

    A profile is a short list of steps. Each step says who is told, and how:

    • a text,
    • a call,
    • a text and a call, or
    • two calls close together.

    Two calls close together are for someone whose phone may be on Do Not Disturb: a second call soon after the first can ring through it. A text can include a link to your last known location, if you choose. A call carries no location.

    Each step has a wait before it. The wait gives you time to check in before anyone is contacted, and time before the next person is.

    People can be added one at a time, or grouped into circles, such as family or housemates. Pick them from your contacts or type a number. When you add someone, we check whether their number can receive texts, so you find out now if it is a landline rather than later.

  4. Introduce them, so they can agree

    Texts and calls from StandingBy come from a number your people will not recognize. Many phones send calls from unknown numbers straight to voicemail. So when you add someone, StandingBy can write a short introduction for you to send from your own phone. It explains what StandingBy is and includes a link.

    The link opens a page that says who added them, what they might receive and from which number. They can agree to be contacted and save the number to their contacts in one tap.

    Nobody is texted or called until they have agreed on that page. You can add someone before they agree, but until they do they will not be contacted, and the app shows you that plainly, including by name each time you start a session. Someone who agreed but did not save the number may still find their phone does not ring for it. The introduction goes from your own Messages app, so it stays in your sent messages until you delete it.

During a session

Before a session starts you see a short summary of what will happen and who will be contacted. Then StandingBy reminds you each time a check-in is due. Check in from the notification or in the app. On an Obvious profile, if no check-in has arrived shortly after the reminder, you also get a text, and the profile can let you check in by replying SAFE. Anyone holding your phone could send that reply, so it is off by default for situations where you are with someone. To prevent accidental taps, checking in takes a deliberate hold-and-slide. If that is hard for you, you can switch to tapping twice.

If you still have not checked in, an Obvious profile sounds an alarm on your phone before anyone is told, to give you one more chance. It is on unless you turn it off. A Disguised profile has no alarm, because the phone's alarm screen would show StandingBy's name.

An example

An Obvious profile that checks in every 45 minutes, with the alarm and three steps. The times and names are made up.

  1. 9:00 pmSession starts
  2. 9:45 pmCheck-in due. A reminder appears on your phone.
  3. 5 minute wait
  4. 9:50 pmAn alarm sounds on your phone.
  5. 10 minute waitNobody has been contacted yet.
  6. 10:00 pm, step 1Sam gets a text saying you have not checked in, and asking them to try to reach you.
  7. 15 minute wait
  8. 10:15 pm, step 2Sam and Priya get a text and a call. Sam's text says it is a follow-up, not a repeat.
  9. 15 minute wait
  10. 10:30 pm, step 3Sam and Priya get two calls close together.
  11. 10:36 pmYou check in. Sam and Priya are each told once that you have checked in. They get a text and a call, because the alerts this answers went to them by both text and call. The session carries on, and your next check-in is due at 11:21 pm.

What happens to the people you chose

  • Each person is contacted once per step, even if they are in two circles.
  • Every message says what StandingBy knows, and nothing more: that you have not checked in, and when you last did. It never says you are in danger, because the app does not know that.
  • If you chose to share your location for a step, its texts can include a link to where your phone last reported being, when we have a location to show. The link stops working when a check-in clears the alert it belongs to, or when the session ends. Each person gets their own link, so if one of them withdraws their agreement to be contacted about you, only their link stops working. Calls never include it.
  • If you check in late, everyone who was contacted is told you have checked in, and that they may hear from StandingBy again because the session is still running. They are told by text if any alert this update answers was, or may have been, sent to them by text, and by one call if any was, or may have been, sent by call: someone who was called gets a call, not just a text. If the session goes quiet again later, their next message says so, so it does not look like a glitch.
  • If you end the session, anyone who was contacted is told you have stopped monitoring and that nothing more is scheduled.
  • Neither message says it was a false alarm or that you are safe. StandingBy saw a check-in or an ending, and cannot know more than that.
  • If you want help now, SOS tells everyone in the profile at once, including people already contacted, that you asked for help. It does not contact emergency services. Call 911 if you need them.

You can see what was sent to whom and when in the session's activity list. You can also read what your people receive.

It keeps going if your phone does not

The schedule runs on our servers, not on your phone. If your battery dies, you lose signal, or your phone is taken, your people are still contacted when a check-in is missed. Deleting the app does not stop a session that is running either. End it first.

This also works the other way. If you have no signal, your check-in cannot reach us, and your people will be contacted. Think about signal on your route before you start.

If you turn off notifications for StandingBy, sessions still run. On an Obvious profile you can still get a text reminder; on a Disguised profile nothing will remind you, and you would have to open the app yourself.

Obvious and Disguised

Each profile has one of two styles.

Obvious looks like what it is: a safety check-in app, with clear reminders and a screen showing what has been sent.

Disguised is for people whose phone may be seen by the person they are worried about, for example someone who does not feel safe at home. On a disguised profile:

  • Check-in reminders and the session screen look like an ordinary, unrelated app. You choose the cover story and can preview it.
  • Nothing on the screen or the lock screen uses safety words, and neither does anything read aloud by a screen reader.
  • There are never text reminders, and you cannot check in by text, because a text on the lock screen cannot be disguised.
  • When people are told you checked in or stopped monitoring, the message also asks them to call you and confirm. An all-clear can be sent under pressure, and hearing your voice is the only way they can check. Their message never mentions a disguise or why you set it up.

What disguised mode cannot do

  • StandingBy is still installed on your phone, and someone who knows the app may recognize it.
  • Anyone holding your phone can check in for you, and there is not yet a way to check in while signaling that you are not OK.
  • Introductions you send stay in your sent messages until you delete the conversation. The link keeps working after you do.
  • Your phone can show, in its settings and status bar, that StandingBy is using your location, and with location allowed all the time it sometimes asks you to review that. The app warns you before your phone first asks for location permission, and again when you set up a Disguised profile.

If you are worried someone is checking your phone or following where you go, the National Domestic Violence Hotline can talk it through with you, confidentially, at any hour: 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. In an emergency, call 911.

What can go wrong

Everything here depends on things outside our control, and you should know what they are before you rely on it:

  • Phone carriers can delay or filter texts, and a text to a landline may simply disappear.
  • Your people's phones may silence calls from unknown numbers, be on Do Not Disturb, be switched off, or be out of signal. A second call soon after the first can get through Do Not Disturb, though it may not.
  • Notifications on your phone can be late or not arrive.
  • Someone you added can reply STOP. That stops our texts and calls to them, and we tell you straight away.
  • Our service can fail, like any service.

StandingBy is one way for people to notice you have gone quiet. It should not be the only thing you rely on. Tell people your plans too, and call 911 in an emergency.