Beacon Safe is a daily check-in app for the backcountry. Set it up once at home. Hike all day. Tap "I'm safe" when you're back in signal — if you don't, your people get alerted automatically. If you remember Kitestring, it's the same dead man's switch idea, rebuilt and still running.
Why Beacon Safe for Hikers
The deadline lives on our servers, not your phone. Once you set it up, the system runs continuously — no "arm before the trailhead" routine to forget. Phone off, dead, or in airplane mode? Alerts still fire on schedule.
Satellite messengers like SPOT and Garmin inReach cost $250–$450 plus $20+/mo subscriptions. Beacon Safe is free to start, $19.99/mo for full multi-channel alerts.
Email, SMS, voice call, and push. Contacts are notified one at a time in priority order — if your spouse silences notifications, the next person gets the voice call. Four channels, multiple chances to reach someone.
Heading deep into the Winds for four days? Tap Vacation Mode and set the resume date — no false alerts while you're out. End it when you're back at the car and your normal check-in cycle picks right back up.
Real Use Cases
You set up Beacon last week from the couch: daily check-in at 7 p.m., your partner as priority contact. This morning you head out at sunrise for a 12-mile loop in the Wasatch — no setup at the trailhead, the system is already running. You tag the summit, take the long way down through the canyon, and roll back to the car at 4 p.m. with no service all afternoon. You hit a Starbucks on the drive home, open the app, tap "I'm safe." Done. If you'd twisted an ankle and the 7 p.m. deadline came and went, after a 2-hour grace period your partner would have gotten an SMS, an email, and 5 minutes later a voice call — with your last check-in timestamp.
You're heading into the Wind Rivers Friday morning for four days — ten miles from the nearest road, zero signal the entire trip. Before you leave the car, you tap Vacation Mode and set it to end Tuesday morning. Your sister in Denver gets a notification: "Sarah is in Vacation Mode until Tuesday." No false alerts while you're out. Sunday afternoon you roll back to the car, end Vacation Mode, and your normal evening check-in picks up that night. If you'd preferred to stay armed, you could have switched your interval to 72 hours instead and just checked in once on Monday from the trailhead.
You're descending a Class 3 slot canyon in southern Utah with one other person. Anything goes wrong down there and rescue is hours away. You're on the Plus tier, so you turn on Safety Check the night before. Now if you miss your evening check-in, Beacon calls and texts you first — a chance to confirm safety even if you're just delayed crawling out of the canyon. If you don't respond to Safety Check either, the normal escalation kicks in and your contacts get the alert with your last check-in timestamp — everything they'd need to call the local sheriff and start a search.
Alert Channels
Detailed alert with your last check-in time, deadline, and a one-tap "I've got them" response button. Works for every contact, even on the free tier.
A text lands on your contact's lock screen with the alert summary. Most people read texts faster than email — critical when you're overdue from a hike.
If SMS and email get ignored, an automated voice call goes out 5 minutes later. Phone calls cut through Do Not Disturb and the silenced-phone problem.
You get a push notification reminding you to check in before your deadline. Big buttons, one tap, done — designed to work with cold fingers.
Contact Responses
Every alert — email, SMS, or voice call — includes four one-tap response options so the people back home can coordinate without a group text:
Responses sync across all channels in real time. The first contact to confirm closes the loop for everyone — no mass-text panic, no duplicate search parties.
Pricing
FAQ
Yes. Beacon runs on a daily check-in model that you set up once at home — not a per-trip timer you arm at the trailhead. The deadline lives on our servers, not your phone, so alerts fire automatically even if your phone is off, dead, or out of service when the deadline passes. You only need a few seconds of data (cellular or WiFi) to register a check-in — usually when you get back to the car, the trailhead, or the first cafe with WiFi.
No — and we want to be explicit about that. Satellite messengers send SOS signals from anywhere on Earth and route them straight to search and rescue. Beacon Safe is not a SAR replacement and does not contact 911. For serious wilderness travel where rescue is plausible, carry a satellite messenger. Beacon Safe is a complementary safety net for day hikes, weekend trips, and trail running — the kind of trips where a satellite device feels like overkill but you still want someone to know if you don't come home.
Two options. (1) Vacation Mode: tap it once before you leave the car, set the resume date, and your daily check-ins pause until you're back. No false alerts. Or (2) extend your interval to 72 hours in Settings — then you only need to check in every three days. Most weekend backpackers use Vacation Mode; through-hikers and longer trips tend to extend the interval and check in from town stops.
Open the app and tap Check In. If alerts have already gone out, your contacts get an "All clear" follow-up via the same channels. The activity log shows the false alarm. Plus tier users can also enable Safety Check, which calls and texts you first when you miss a check-in — giving you a chance to confirm safety before contacts are notified.
Beacon Safe is not an emergency service and does not contact 911 or search and rescue. In any life-threatening emergency, always call 911 (or your local emergency number) directly. For wilderness travel where rescue may be needed, carry a satellite communicator. Beacon Safe alerts your personal contacts as a supplemental check-in tool. Alert delivery depends on network availability and cannot be guaranteed.
Explore
Beacon Safe is live on iOS and Android.