Truecaller launches Guardians app for women's safety

Truecaller on Wednesday launched Guardians, a new personal safety app and service that will allow users to share their location with trusted contacts and inform them about their whereabouts in case of an emergency.

While there are several apps that offer the ability to share your location with your family and friends including services built-in to the phone like Apple’s Find My, the Guardians developers say they want to “crowdsource” personal safety. Developers also said they spent four years researching women’s safety and wanted to do something to make cities safer. A company spokesperson stated that while the app was designed with women's safety in mind, anyone could download and use the services for free.  

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The company has built the service to work along similar lines as its popular Truecaller app and says that having the app installed will even help you log in faster. 

If you only have the Guardians app installed, the process is the same as signing up for most services that require your number - you receive an OTP via SMS or call to confirm you own the number, then grant permission to access your contacts, location and phone. The company claims it will not share personal information with its Truecaller service or any third parties for commercial purposes.

The developers explained that granting the contact permission enables picking a Guardian, while the phone permission will help show your status to your Guardian. The app will also run in the background and conserve battery by sending intermittent location updates. Users can also start and stop location sharing or tap the emergency button to notify their guardians about their location. 

There’s also a slightly ambiguous feature that will share your location with volunteers in the vicinity, but the company says that accepting their assistance will be optional.

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“There are probably hundreds of apps on the app stores for personal safety and location sharing. But none of them work in a way where you can involve your family, friends, the community at large and the authorities,” said Alan Mamedi, CEO and co-founder of True Software in a press statement.