Helpi

Helpi, pronounced help-i, is a personal safety Android application that users can employ to alert friends and family as well as post the message on social networking sites in the event of an emergency. Helpi is architected keeping safety of women in mind.

Pressing Helpi’s SOS button helps send a pre-configured distress message to all the contacts, including up to five friends, who have been added as an emergency contact. The message also goes to the user’s Twitter account – all this at the push of a button.

The App is programmed to automatically send messages at regular intervals, once the emergency has been activated, a necessity in times of growing street crimes. In a real-life situation, a citizen travelling in a bus wanting to send a distress signal just needs to press the distress button. After this, the App will convey his/her location to his/her friends every few minutes. If the citizen is travelling in a place that has no Internet connectivity or GPS, the App sends a quick pre-configured SOS SMS.

Helpi utilises smartphone’s GPRS, SMS, GPS and Google’s Maps API to send SOS messages when triggered. This means that users can send pre-configured SOS emergency in the form of SMS to a select group of five friends and relatives with their exact address, GPS location and IMEI number.

The App also feature a database of helpline numbers, and SOS alarm – if user is going out and he or she is expected to return back in an hour, there is an an option to set an alarm to start broadcasting his or her location after an hour.