MobileSOS.co.uk - contacts your friends & family in an emergency

MobileSOS bills itself as the world’s first location based instant communications system for personal safety, or as the site puts it:

For those vital times when you need to say ‘I’m OK” or ask for help, a combination of messages to the people that matter will ensure that your message is heard.

I buy that viewpoint — although walking about the place as a tall, well built six-footer — I think I possibly have a more pragmatic approach to putting myself anywhere near potential dangers.

Not being female, I don’t quite feel qualified to evaluate the MobileSOS service further in terms of concept — except to say that almost any girl I’ve spoken to about mobile has, at one time or another, talked about some sort of ‘I’m OK panic alarm sort of service’ that would be ‘cool’: exactly the sort of thing MobileSOS is offering.

I’ve  seen one or two things similar services, but none that includes a location based element.  MobileSOS will, depending on how you configure it, do a quick look up of your current position (when you’ve phoned it on speed dial, for example, to issue an alarm) and pass this data to your nominated contacts (friends, family) right away.  There’s an array of options though.  You can have it sit there and wait for you to quickly call it — for it to issue an alert. Or you can setup a timer and if you don’t check back in within the alloted time set, it’ll issue the alarm.  There’s also an ‘I’m OK’ function — when you just want to quickly let your friends know all is good — e.g. if you’re meeting some total weirdo for a date at a deserted warehouse about 10 miles out of town at 11pm at night. 

I can see quite a lot of mobile geeks dismissing this concept out of hand.  In fact I’ve spoken to three people today who said, ‘Balls to that, just phone to say you’re OK.’    However, it’s all about peace of mind.  I think it’s a go-er. 

Check out the site for demos and more information.

(Thanks, Alex)