Dead Man's Switch App: your contacts are alerted if you don't check in.
Safety Checkpoint is a dead man's switch for your phone. You set a deadline and check in with one tap. If the deadline passes in silence, the message you wrote in advance reaches the people you chose, with what you wrote and everything they need to act. You never have to press anything during the emergency itself.
Free plan, no credit card. Web and iOS. Your contacts need no app.
What is a dead man's switch app?
The original dead man's switch sits in a train cab: the driver has to keep a handle pressed, and the moment the hand lets go the brakes come on. The safety logic is inverted on purpose. Doing nothing is the signal.
A dead man's switch app applies that logic to a person. Instead of a handle, there is a deadline. Instead of brakes, there is a message. If you cannot check in, whether you are hurt, unconscious, detained or simply without your phone, the message is sent for you.
The deadline
You decide when you must check in: a recurring time every day, or a single deadline such as tonight at 23:30 or Sunday at 18:00.
The check-in
One tap before the deadline confirms you are fine. No alert goes out; your contacts get a one-line email saying you checked in, the emergency message stays sealed, and the switch resets.
The trigger
Miss the deadline and your pre-written message goes to your contacts on its own: within a few minutes for a daily or heartbeat switch, after the delay you chose for a one-off deadline.
How does the dead man's switch work in Safety Checkpoint?
Four steps the first time, one tap every time after that.
Write the message once
Say where you are going, what you are doing and what you want done. Add your address, medical notes, a spare-key location, and the GPS position of the moment you write it if that helps; on the paid plans, files, credentials or a recorded voice message.
Choose who gets it
Family, a neighbor, a friend. They need no app and no account: the alert reaches them by email, and by SMS on the Survival plan.
Set the deadline, and the delay if it is a one-off
A one-off deadline for tonight on every plan, the free one included; you can hold the alert up to 48 hours after it passes. A daily check-in or a heartbeat that watches for inactivity from Safety 101 up; those alert within a few minutes of the missed time, so put the margin in the time itself.
Activate and forget it
From then on your only job is the tap. Pause the switch when you do not need it, stop it any time. A running protocol cannot be edited: if plans change, stop it and create a new one.
Three ways to arm the switch
- Recurring check-in. Every day at the time you pick. The classic switch for living alone. Safety 101 and above.
- Heartbeat. No fixed time: the switch fires when you have been inactive longer than your threshold. Safety 101 and above.
- One-off deadline. Tonight's arrival, Sunday's return from the trail, on every plan including the free one. A safety timer, in other words.
What do your contacts receive?
Not a vague "something is wrong". The alert carries what you prepared, so whoever reads it can act without guessing.
In the alert
- Your message, exactly as you wrote it, with the time of the missed check-in
- The GPS position you recorded in the message when you wrote it, if you added one; it is not refreshed when the alert fires
- On Safety 101 and above, encrypted files and credentials unlocked only with the PIN you gave them; on Survival, a recorded voice message too
- A live status page showing the protocol, its countdown and what to do next
How it reaches them
By email on every plan, by SMS as well on the Survival plan. Every contact is alerted at the same time, so there is no single person who can miss it. Graduated escalation, one contact after another with delays, is on the roadmap and not live yet.
Safety Checkpoint alerts the people you chose. It does not call emergency services for you: your contacts decide whether to call, visit, or contact 911 or 112 with the information in hand.
See the full alert, step by stepDead man's switch vs panic button vs location sharing
They are not rivals. A panic button covers the moment you can still act; location sharing covers people who already know you are in trouble. The switch covers the case neither can: nobody knows yet.
Dead man's switch
Fires when you do nothing
- Works if you are unconscious or without your phone
- Carries a message you wrote in advance
- Needs a signal at the moment of the incident
- Tracks you between alerts
Panic button
Fires when you press it
- Works if you are unconscious or without your phone
- Carries a message you wrote in advance
- Needs a signal at the moment of the incident
- Tracks you between alerts
Location sharing
Shows where you are, not whether you are fine
- Works if you are unconscious or without your phone
- Carries a message you wrote in advance
- Needs a signal at the moment of the incident
- Tracks you between alerts
Eight check-in apps side by side, ours included: best safety check-in apps in 2026.
Who needs a dead man's switch?
Anyone whose absence would not be noticed quickly. The situations differ; the mechanism is the same.
People living alone
A daily switch (Safety 101 and above) so a fall or a bad night is noticed the same day, not on Monday.
See the setup
Solo hikers
Set the return deadline at the trailhead, while you still have a signal.
See the setup
Solo travelers
Check-ins across time zones, with your itinerary in the message.
See the setup
Night shifts and late commutes
An arrival deadline for the walk or the ride home after closing.
See the setup
Privacy: a switch, not a tracker
Between two check-ins nothing is watched, recorded or shared. Your message is encrypted with AES-256 on your device. On the paid plans, files and credentials are encrypted the same way and wrapped for each contact individually; a contact unlocks them with their PIN, and we cannot read them. A GPS position goes into the message only if you press the button while writing it, and it is not tracked or refreshed afterwards.
How the encryption worksFrequently Asked Questions
Yes. Safety Base, the free plan, is a one-off dead man's switch: one protocol a month, one contact, one email alert a month, end-to-end encryption, no credit card. Daily and heartbeat switches, more contacts, SMS and encrypted storage are on the paid plans.
- •Safety Base (free): 1 one-off protocol a month, 1 contact, 1 email alert a month, encryption included, no file storage
- •Safety 101 ($4.99/mo): recurring and heartbeat switches, 10 protocols a month, 10 contacts, 10 email alerts a month, 50MB encrypted storage
- •Survival ($9.99/mo): 25 protocols a month, 20 contacts, 10 SMS and 5 audio alerts a month, 100MB storage
- •Your contacts never pay and never install anything
- •Start free, test the switch with one person, upgrade if you need more
As short as tonight's walk home or as long as a multi-day trek. You set the deadline to a date and time. A running protocol cannot be edited; if plans change, stop it and create a new one, or set a delay after the deadline in advance.
- •Daily protocols (Safety 101 and above) repeat at the time you choose, every day or on selected days
- •One-off deadlines suit a hike, a date, a road trip, a shift
- •On a one-off deadline you can hold the alert up to 48 hours; daily and heartbeat switches alert within a few minutes
- •Pause a protocol from the app; to change its deadline, stop it and create a new one
- •Common mistake: a deadline set for the planned arrival with no margin for delays
The switch still fires. The deadline is enforced on our servers, not on your phone, so a dead battery, a broken screen or a canyon with no coverage does not stop the alert. It only stops you from checking in, which is exactly the case the switch exists for.
- •The alert is sent from the server when the deadline passes without a check-in
- •Your phone does not need to be on, charged or connected at that moment
- •Attach your planned route or last known position to the message before you leave
- •In areas without coverage, set the deadline for when you expect to be back in range
- •A satellite messenger remains the right tool for calling rescue yourself
On the paid plans, yes: Safety 101 allows 10 protocols a month and Survival 25, each with its own contacts, message and timing: a daily check-in for home, a one-off deadline for tonight's hike, a heartbeat while you recover from surgery. The free plan is one protocol a month.
- •Different messages for different situations, so the alert is always relevant
- •Different contacts too: a neighbor for home, a partner for travel
- •Pause the ones you do not need without deleting them
- •Each contact sees only the protocols they are part of
- •Free: 1 protocol a month; Safety 101: 10; Survival: 25
It depends on the switch. On a one-off deadline with a delay, a late check-in inside that delay cancels the alert as if nothing happened. On a daily or heartbeat switch the alert goes out within a few minutes of the missed time. A late tap then updates the status page your contacts can open: a daily occurrence completes and the next one is still scheduled; a heartbeat re-arms for the next interval. The alert has already been sent.
- •One-off deadline: choose a delay of up to 48 hours, and one tap inside it cancels everything
- •Daily: a late tap completes that day's occurrence; the protocol keeps running
- •Heartbeat: a late tap re-arms the next interval; stop the protocol when you no longer need it
- •Once the alert is sent, it cannot be recalled: contacts already have it
- •Your contacts also get a one-line email each time you confirm, late or not
Same mechanism, different name. Check-in apps, safety timers and dead man's switches all fire on the absence of a confirmation. What varies is the message they carry and who receives it: a text saying you are late, or a full package with location, instructions and, on paid plans, files.
- •Daily check-in apps are dead man's switches with a fixed daily deadline
- •Safety timers are dead man's switches for a single activity
- •Safety Checkpoint does both, with a pre-written encrypted message
- •Contacts get the message by email or SMS, without an app
- •The name does not matter; the message content does
Arm your switch before you need it
Write the message once, choose your people, set tonight's deadline. The free plan is enough to test it with one contact this week.
No credit card required. Upgrade anytime. Cancel anytime.