You may have read about the updates we have implemented into the Walkalone app.

We're keen to share some simple updates that will make life easier for our user base due to be released soon.

In the main these are Walkalone user interface tweaks and additions, some of which will actually make the platform that bit safer end more efficient for users.
 

1. Option to share Walkalone user location map
   Will feature beneath the user location map when accessed by alert recipient when the Walkalone high efficiency mode is used. In the first instance this will be an option to share the map and details by email 
   
   
2. User location map ID reference encryption 
   Will provide total protection for users in that it won't be possible for any location map generated by the system - be it as a result of testing or a genuine alert sent to request help - from being inadvertantly stumbled across or maliciously sought a any future point in time
   
   
3. Admin to have access to all historic alerts and associate map references in order to provide information Police authorities which could help with any criminal investigation

Users see the option when switching on the Walkalone app. So what's the difference between normal and high efficiency mode?

Both modes address the recipient of the alert personally and the urgent tone of the message remains unchanged.

However, alerts sent in normal mode contain the map of the user's location within the alert whereas high efficiency mode contains a unique code for recipients to access the location map at Walkalone.co.uk and a short instruction telling them how.

This update adds further strength to an already powerful tool at the fingtertips of victims of any kind of social or domestic violence, be they women, children, teen or pensioner - any phone user in fact.

High-efficiency alerts only contain text rather than dynamic googlemaps URLs which can be lengthy.  Lengthy googlemaps urls are not favoured by all mobile phone SMS networks so may flag to the operator's individual spam regulations.

Walkalone high-efficiency mode counters the problem securing faster first time success for alerts.

Walkalone is a personal safety app for anyone; woman, man, teen, child or OAP. If you have a mobile phone then you can use the Walkalone safety tool to help protect you if you encounter any kind of danger.

That may sound a bit generic but the fact is we live in a dangerous world. Danger lurks unsuspectingly around every corner, even for those who live relatively fortunate lives. 

Peple also unknowingly encounter danger everyday. Perhaps by entering into relationships with others that, somewhere down the line, reveal their 'true' colours. Often such colours turn out to be darker than expected.

Walkalone was created following the tragic case of Sarah Everard who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens as she walked home in south London on 3rd March 2021.

Whilst there was understandable national outrage around the case with strong calls for more action to tackle violence against women, we asked ourselves the question 'Is there anything... anything at all that we could do to help stop such a heinous act from ever happening again?'

The growth of You ID Me had been consistent over the previous years. From just one single user in 2016 the number had escalated to over twenty thousand by 2021.

In late 2021 we ran the idea for the Walkalone Personal Safety App by our database of You ID Me users who in the main use the system for medical and child ID and alert purposes. Their response was overwhelmingly supportive for the tool.

Our developer took the brief and began work in early 2022. The rest as they say is history.