One daily check-in. No location tracking. If you don't tap "I'm safe," the people you choose are notified by email, SMS, and voice call — on your terms, in the order you set. If you relied on Kitestring before it shut down, Beacon Safe is the modern replacement.
Why Beacon Safe is Built for This
Beacon Safe doesn't request location permissions and doesn't store a single GPS coordinate. Plenty of "safety" apps quietly map your every move; this one knows only whether you tapped the button on time. Nothing more.
Add a sister, a best friend, a neighbor, a parent, or a roommate. You set the order they're notified in, and you can change or remove anyone at any time. Contacts must opt in before SMS or voice calls go out — nobody gets surprise-added.
Email, SMS, voice call, push. Contacts are alerted one at a time in priority order — if your first person silences their phone overnight, the next gets the call. Voice cuts through Do Not Disturb when texts get missed.
Pick a check-in time that fits your routine — morning coffee, end of shift, before bed. Tap once a day. The deadline runs on our servers, so it works even if your phone is dead, on Do Not Disturb, or out of charge overnight.
Real Use Cases
You moved into your own place a few months ago. You love it. You don't need anyone tracking your location and you don't want a daily "you alive?" text from your sister. You set up Beacon Safe with a 9 p.m. check-in: you brush your teeth, tap the button, done. Your sister is your first contact, your best friend is second. Most days nothing happens because nothing needs to. The one Tuesday you fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 with the phone face-down across the room, the 2-hour grace period ticked by, your sister got an SMS at 11 p.m., she called, you woke up, you tapped the app, all clear before midnight. The system worked the way it's supposed to.
You work 4 p.m. to midnight at a hospital and Uber home through a quiet neighborhood. You set your check-in for 1 a.m. — enough buffer to get home, shower, and decompress. If you're not back and tapped in by 1, the grace period gives you until 3 a.m. before anyone is alerted. Most nights you tap it as you climb into bed and that's the end of it. The night your shift ran 90 minutes long because of an emergency intake, you opened the app from the parking garage, extended your check-in to 2 a.m., and went back to work knowing the system wouldn't false-alarm.
You match with someone on an app and you're meeting at a wine bar Saturday evening. Before you leave the apartment, you bump your check-in down to 11 p.m. and add a quick interval that fits the night you're hoping to have. Your best friend is your priority contact and already knows you'll be out. The date goes well, you're home by 10:30, you tap the button. Nothing happens. The next morning your friend texts: "fun?" That's the whole loop — she didn't need real-time location, she didn't need check-in pings every hour, she just trusted that no news was good news.
The 6 a.m. gym session before anyone else is awake. The 10 p.m. walk with the dog around the block. The week-long trip to a city you've never been to. None of these are emergencies — they're just life. A single daily check-in covers all of them without you having to think about it. If you ever don't tap, the people who matter find out. If you do, nothing happens. That's the whole product.
How It Works
Choose a time that fits your routine — morning coffee, end of shift, before bed. Default is once every 24 hours; you can stretch to 48 or 72.
3 contacts on the free tier, up to 10 on Plus. They have to opt in to SMS or voice calls before any messages reach them.
That's it. If you miss the deadline, a 2-hour grace period passes, then alerts go out one contact at a time in your chosen order.
Alert Channels
Detailed alert with your last check-in time and missed deadline. Works for every contact, even on the free tier.
"Sarah hasn't checked in. Last seen: 9:00 PM yesterday. Missed deadline: 9:00 PM today."A text lands on your contact's lock screen the moment the grace period ends. Most people read texts within minutes.
"Beacon Safe: Sarah hasn't checked in. Last check-in 9:00 PM yesterday. Reply 1 to confirm safe, 2 if you're checking on her."If SMS goes unread, an automated voice call rings 5 minutes later. Calls cut through silenced phones and Do Not Disturb.
"This is Beacon Safe. Sarah hasn't checked in. Press 1 to confirm she's safe, press 2 if you're checking on her."You get a push reminder before your deadline so you don't forget. One tap, you're checked in.
"Time to check in — tap to confirm you're safe."Pricing
FAQ
No. Beacon Safe does not collect, store, or share your location. The app does not request location permissions. Your check-in is a single tap that confirms you're safe — no GPS pin, no map, no movement history. The people you choose as contacts only ever learn one thing about your day: whether you tapped "I'm safe" on time.
Yes. The free tier covers up to 3 emergency contacts and sends email alerts when you miss a check-in. You also get push reminders, custom check-in intervals from 12 to 72 hours, and Vacation Mode. The $19.99/month Plus tier adds SMS and voice-call alerts to your contacts and raises the contact limit to 10 — useful if email isn't reliable for the people you'd want notified.
You do, fully. You add each contact by name and phone number, set the order they're notified in, and remove or change them anytime. Contacts must explicitly opt in to receive SMS or voice calls before any messages reach them. No employer, family member, or third party can be added without your action.
Beacon Safe is a check-in tool, not a crisis service, and it isn't designed for situations where someone is monitoring your phone or controlling your movements. If you are in danger or in a coercive relationship, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (or text START to 88788) — they are confidential, free, and available 24/7. In an immediate emergency, call 911. Beacon Safe can be a useful supplemental tool once you have a safety plan in place, but it should not replace professional help.
No. Alerts include the time of your last check-in and the time of the missed deadline — that's it. No location, no GPS coordinates, no map link. Your contacts know that you didn't check in on time and can decide how to follow up (call you, drive over, contact other people in your life). The decision about what to do next stays with the people who actually know you.
There's a 2-hour grace period after every missed deadline before any alerts go out, so a slow morning won't trigger anything. If alerts have already fired, you can open the app, tap Check In, and your contacts get an automatic "all clear" follow-up via the same channels. Plus tier users can also enable Safety Check, which calls and texts you first if you miss a deadline — one more chance to confirm you're fine before anyone else hears about it.
Beacon Safe is not an emergency service and does not contact 911 or any emergency dispatcher. In any life-threatening emergency, call 911 directly. For domestic violence support, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233. Beacon Safe alerts the personal contacts you choose 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.