Amnesty International Releases Panic Button App For Activists

As much as we would hope that protests around the world can be done and responded in a peaceful way, sometimes things just have a way of getting out of control. Things are thrown, police react, and that’s when things start to go downhill. Now it seems that Amnesty International is more than familiar with situations that get out of hand why is why they have created a free app called Panic Button.

The app itself will appear on your Android home screen as a calculator app. It has been designed to look innocent just in case someone is searching your phone to make sure you don’t reach out to call for help. In fact the app itself will act like a normal calculator app, but in order to activate it, all you’d have to do is either mash a particular number of the app or keep pressing the power button on your phone.

When doing so, it will then send out a distress message to three preset emergency contacts along with your location. It will continue to do so and keep your contacts apprised of the situation every 5 minutes until you either disable it or your phone runs out of battery. It’s a very clever idea since it basically lets you set of a silent alarm without anyone knowing you did so.

While designed for those who participate in human rights works and activists, we don’t see how it can’t be used in other situations when a panic button might be needed, like mashing it furiously when you’re being mugged, or calling the police when there’s an intruder in your home and you don’t want them to hear you on the phone. The app is free for download so if you’d like to learn more, head on over to Google Play for the download.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Apps