The distress button and distress code
The distress button tells your safety contacts now, without waiting for a missed check-in. A secret distress code does the same thing quietly. Both are free on every plan.
The distress button
- Press and hold the triangle Ask for help button on the dashboard.
- The app asks, "Alert all contacts immediately?" You can add a quick note (what is happening or where you are) and optionally turn on Record my route, which shares your route with your safety contacts until you check in.
- Tap Tell them now.
Your contacts are told right away. The note appears in the alert, and the screen shows that you asked for help. If you are safe, hold the switch to check in; this sends an all-clear. If it is an emergency, call your local emergency number first; Chillswitch does not.
If you have no safety contacts, the app says there is nobody to tell yet and offers to add someone.
Location with distress
In Settings > Location > When you ask for help you can choose to share your location at the moment you press, and to record your route from that point. Both are optional and shared only with your safety contacts.
The secret distress code
If someone is making you check in, enter your distress code instead of your usual passcode or pattern. Your screen shows a normal check-in, so anyone watching sees one that worked, but your contacts are quietly told something is wrong, with the same words the distress button would send.
To set it up:
- Turn on a passcode or pattern first (Settings > Proving it's you).
- Choose Set a secret distress code, prove it is you with your usual code, then enter a different second code.
Notes:
- The code must be different from your normal one.
- There is no way to test it. Entering it always sends the alert, so choose something you will remember and will not enter by accident.
- The screen never reveals whether you have one. That is deliberate.
- Nothing is deleted or hidden on the phone. A code that wiped a phone would leave you explaining the wipe.