Safety Timer App: set a deadline, we alert your people if it runs out.
Safety Checkpoint is a safety timer app for the moments a text is not enough. Start a timer before the walk, the ride, the hike or the date. Check in when you are safe and your contacts get one line saying so. Let it run out and the message you wrote reaches the people you chose.
Free plan, no credit card. Web and iOS. Your contacts need no app.
What is a safety timer?
A safety timer, also called a check-in timer, trip timer or journey timer, is a countdown you start before doing something alone. If you stop it in time, your contact gets a one-line confirmation. If you do not, someone is told. It is the quiet alternative to texting "home safe" and hoping the other person notices when the text never comes.
The point is what it covers: the situations where you cannot press a panic button because you are hurt, unconscious, or your phone is gone. A timer does not need you to do anything at the moment things go wrong. It needs you to have done something before.
How to set a safety timer in Safety Checkpoint
Under a minute. Each outing is its own protocol and counts against the monthly quota: one on the free plan, ten on Safety 101, twenty-five on Survival. For the same arrival time every night, a recurring protocol on Safety 101 and above runs daily and counts once.
Set the deadline: your ETA plus a margin
A 25-minute walk gets a 35-minute timer. A day hike gets the planned return plus the time it takes to get back into coverage.
Write what should happen if it runs out
Where you are going, which route, who you are meeting, what you want done. The GPS button records where you are as you write, so for a hike put the trailhead, the route and the planned return point in words; on the paid plans add a photo of the trail map or a license plate.
Pick who is told
One person or several. They receive the alert by email, and by SMS on the Survival plan, with no app to install and nothing to do in advance.
Start it, then check in when you are safe
One tap on arrival ends the timer; your contacts get a one-line email saying you checked in and the emergency message stays sealed. Running late? A protocol cannot be edited once it runs: stop it and create a new one, or set a delay after the deadline before you leave.
Before you rely on it
- Run one timer with your primary contact and let it fire on purpose
- Put the margin in the deadline, not in your memory
- Tell your contact what you expect them to do: call, come, or call the police
- Same time every night? Use a recurring protocol (Safety 101 and above) instead of a new one-off each evening
When do people start a safety timer?
Each situation has its own guide with a ready-made timer length and message.
Walking home at night
Arrival deadline for the last mile from the station.
Open the guide
Late rideshare
Timer for the trip, license plate in the message.
Open the guide
Solo hike
Return deadline set at the trailhead, route attached.
Open the guide
Night run or late workout
A deadline for being back through the door.
Open the guide
Closing shift
Timer from lock-up to home for hospitality staff.
Open the guide
First date or meeting a stranger
A check-in deadline the other person never sees.
Open the guide
Safety timer or sharing your location?
Sharing your location
Shows a dot on a map to someone who has to be looking at it. It tells them where you are, never whether you are fine: a dot that stops moving looks the same asleep, at dinner, or on the ground. And it runs all evening, whether anything happens or not.
A safety timer
Sends a one-line confirmation when you check in and the full message only when you do not. Nobody watches a map: the alert carries the position you recorded while writing the message, not a live one, and your own words about what to do. Put the route and the planned return point in the message and the two approaches complement each other, without the surveillance in between.
Does my phone already have a safety timer?
Probably. iPhones have Check In inside Messages, and Google's Personal Safety app on Pixel phones has Safety Check. Both are free and both are worth using. Here is where they stop.
| Feature | iOS Check In | Android Safety Check | Safety Checkpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Works whatever phone your contact has | |||
| Sends a message you wrote in advance | |||
| Reaches contacts by email or SMS, no app needed | |||
| Files, credentials or a voice message behind a PIN (paid plans) | |||
| Recurring daily check-in as well as one-off timers (Safety 101 and above) | |||
| Free to use |
iOS Check In lives in Messages: you start it in a conversation, and if you do not arrive or respond, that contact receives your location, battery and signal status. Both sides need an iPhone with iMessage, one contact per Check In, and there is no message of your own. For an iPhone-to-iPhone trip with nothing to explain, use it.
Android Safety Check starts a countdown and, if you do not confirm, shares your live location with your emergency contacts, who can also be told when it starts and ends. You pick a reason or type a short note of your own; there are no files, no sealed package and no daily routine. Availability depends on the phone and region.
Use Safety Checkpoint when the message matters, when your contacts do not share your phone brand, or when the same protocol has to run every day. Eight check-in apps compared.
What your contacts receive when the timer runs out
Your message as you wrote it, the time the timer expired, the GPS position you recorded in it while writing if you added one, and a link to a live status page with the protocol details and your instructions. On the paid plans, files, credentials and voice messages stay encrypted until a contact enters the PIN you gave them. Delivery is by email on every plan and by SMS on Survival, to all contacts at once.
The alert, step by stepFrequently Asked Questions
Yes. Check In, in the Messages app on iOS 17 and later, lets you set a timer or a destination and tells one contact if you do not arrive or respond, with your location and battery level. It needs an iPhone on both sides and carries no message of your own.
- •Free, already installed, worth turning on for iPhone-to-iPhone trips
- •The contact must use iMessage; there is no email or SMS fallback
- •One contact per Check In, no pre-written instructions, no files
- •No recurring daily version for living alone
- •Safety Checkpoint covers those gaps and works alongside it
Not by editing it: a running protocol cannot be changed, by design. Two ways to handle a late train: set a delay after the deadline before you leave, so a late tap inside the delay still cancels the alert; or stop the timer and create a new one with a later deadline, which counts as a second protocol on your monthly quota.
- •A delay after the deadline, set before you leave, is the cheap way to absorb lateness
- •Stop and recreate if plans really change; the new protocol takes a minute
- •A fired alert cannot be recalled: once sent, your contacts have it
- •Pausing a protocol stops the countdown without deleting it
- •Ending it on arrival is a single tap
No. The timer is enforced on our servers, so your phone does nothing while it runs. A GPS position is captured only when you press the button while writing the message, and it is not refreshed afterwards. Nobody sees where you are while the timer is running.
- •No background GPS, no continuous sharing
- •The alert fires even if your phone is dead or out of coverage
- •Write your route and planned return point in the message; the GPS button records where you are when you write, not where you end up
- •Your message is encrypted on your device with AES-256; files too, on the paid plans
- •Between two check-ins nothing is tracked; contacts get a one-line email when you confirm
Yes on the free plan, Safety Base: a single one-off protocol a month, one contact, one email alert a month, no credit card. Enough to test the chain or to cover an occasional late walk, not to run it every night: that is Safety 101, at $4.99 a month.
- •Safety Base (free): 1 one-off protocol a month, 1 contact, 1 email alert a month, no file storage
- •Safety 101 ($4.99/mo): 10 protocols a month, 10 contacts, recurring and heartbeat modes, 50MB encrypted storage
- •Survival ($9.99/mo): 25 protocols a month, 20 contacts, 10 SMS and 5 audio alerts a month
- •Your contacts never pay and never install anything
- •Cancel or downgrade any time
If you set a delay after the deadline, it runs first. If you still have not checked in, the alert is sent. That is the system working as designed; a false alarm costs one call to say you are fine, and a missed real one costs far more.
- •Choose a delay after the deadline that matches how often you forget your phone, up to 48 hours
- •The reminder notification before the deadline catches most forgotten timers
- •Tell your contacts in advance that a false alarm is possible and what to do
- •After the alert, ending the protocol updates the status page they can open
- •If you get frequent false alarms, lengthen the delay rather than skipping the timer
The person doing the activity runs the timer on their own phone, because they are the one who has to check in. You can set up the protocol with them and be the contact who is alerted.
- •One account per person; a caregiver can be the contact on several protocols
- •Set up together once, then the daily routine is their tap
- •Teens keep control of the message, which is what makes them use it
- •For a parent living alone, a recurring daily check-in suits better than a timer
- •Contacts need no account to receive alerts
Start a timer for tonight
Write the message once, choose your people, set the deadline. The free plan is enough to test it with one contact this evening.
No credit card required. Upgrade anytime. Cancel anytime.