Questions people ask
Why some of this works the way it does, in more words than fit on the screens themselves.
Why some of this works the way it does, in more words than fit on the screens themselves.
Chillswitch answers the awkward questions in plain words. Nothing here is an emergency service, and nothing deletes your data.
No. It tells the people you chose, and nobody else. Chillswitch is not an emergency service and has no way to reach one. If you need the police, the fire service or an ambulance, call them yourself; and if you are weighing up which to do, call them first. This app can do its own job afterwards.
No. Chillswitch does not wipe, lock, or delete personal files from your phone. The switch records a check-in and, after the service confirms it, can send an all-clear for an active alert.
Because the moments you most need help are the moments you cannot press anything. A button only works if you are conscious, holding your phone, and free to use it, and every other product in this line asks you to bet on all three at once. Chillswitch works the other way round: it expects to hear from you, and when it doesn't, it tells your safety contacts without you doing a thing. There is a distress button on the switch you can hold if you already know you are in trouble and your next check-in is an hour away; but that is the extra, not the arrangement. Nothing here depends on you being able to reach it.
You get the grace period you chose. Check in during it and no alert is sent. If escalation has started, checking in sends a signed all-clear to everyone already notified.
Not unless you ask it to. Location is optional and off by default. If you enable it, your phone can attach where you were when you check in, and selected in-app alert steps can share that sealed location and its timestamp with your chosen contacts. On a paid plan you can also start a trip that records a route while it runs. Your phone shows its location indicator the whole time, the route is sealed on your device, your contacts can open it only if the trip lapses or you ask for help, and it is deleted when the trip ends. Chillswitch never shows anyone your live location.
Only what you have given them, and mostly only once something has gone wrong. While you are answering normally they see that you are, and little else. If you go quiet they are told in stages, and you decide what each stage releases: when you last checked in, the message you wrote, where you set out from. What they read is sealed on your phone before it leaves, so it is not ours to hand over either.
Your device creates a pseudonym and key pair. Recovery uses a code generated on your phone and never sent to us. We keep the encrypted backup; you keep the code. Neither works alone.
No, and this is the one worth reading twice. Quiet hours change when you are asked to check in. They do not change what happens if you miss one, and an alert already running carries straight through them. That is deliberate. Hours you set weeks ago, for an ordinary week, should not be able to call off help you turn out to need tonight. The same goes for your friends. If someone you’re looking out for misses a check-in or asks for help, you’ll still get an alert, even in the middle of your quiet hours.
Because a tap is too easy to do without meaning it. This button says you are all right, and a pocket should not be able to say that on your behalf. The hold takes about a second and buzzes when it lands, so you can feel that it worked without looking at the screen. If holding is difficult, a screen reader can send it in one action.
The countdown is kept on our servers rather than on your phone, so it carries on either way. Check in somewhere with no signal and your phone holds the press, then sends it when it can; carrying the moment you actually pressed, not the moment it found a bar. If your phone is off when your deadline passes, your contacts are told. That is the honest answer rather than a kind one: from the outside, a dead battery and somebody in trouble look exactly the same.
There's no fingerprint or face option, on purpose. In many jurisdictions worldwide, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, legal frameworks and courts have afforded memorized passcodes stronger legal protection against compelled disclosure or forced unlocking than physical biometric markers like fingerprints or facial scans if a device is seized.
You can set a distress code. Entering it checks you in exactly as your normal one does: same screen, same countdown, no warning of any kind; and at the same time it tells your safety contacts that something is wrong, with the same words the distress button would send, by default. It is that button used quietly. Anybody watching sees a check-in that worked. Your own phone goes on showing a calm screen, which is the point of it. Nothing is deleted or hidden on the device, deliberately: a code that wiped a phone would leave you explaining the wipe, which is worse trouble than the one it saved you from.
Paid features end when the plan does. What does not end is the watching: your schedule keeps running, your contacts stay where they are, and nothing already looking out for you is switched off because a card expired. What a lapse costs you is the ability to change a setup that is larger than the free plan allows. It keeps working as it is; you just have to bring it back within the free limits before you can edit it.
Yes. When you add a safety contact, Chillswitch can notify them via SMS fallback without requiring them to install the app or create an account. In-app alerts carry stronger end-to-end encryption, but SMS ensures your network is alerted regardless of handset.
No. We do not sell user data, host ads, or include third-party behavioral trackers. Our business model is straightforward subscription revenue, not monetizing your personal data.