Somebody knows you are alright
Set a phone to tell one person you got home safely, by itself, and to raise the alarm if you did not.
You are walking back from choir at nine and somebody at home would rather know you got in. On an iPhone there is a setting for exactly that, called Check In: you say where you are going and roughly how long, and when you arrive it sends one message to one person, by itself. If you have not arrived, it tells them that instead.
It was built for young people walking home at night, and it happens to be the best answer anybody has produced to a question families ask badly: how do we know she is alright, without ringing every evening as if she were a child.
Android has no setting by that name. The same arrangement is made there by sharing your location for the length of the journey, which is the next lesson.
The important part is who holds the switch. You choose the person and the occasion, you end it in one press, and it tells nobody anything until the moment you set.
Key points
- Set a check-in that tells one person you got home, by itself
- Know that it asks you first, and only silence raises the alarm
- Tell a check-in apart from sharing your location all the time
What to remember
- Check In is inside Messages, on the plus button, and it goes to one person for one journey.
- It asks you before it tells anybody. Silence is the only thing that raises the alarm.
Try this
If somebody in your family worries, call them and offer this rather than waiting to be asked. A check-in ends by itself, which is what makes it easy to agree to.
Practice: Somebody knows you are alright. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.