​Google's Trusted Contacts safety app is now available for iOS

Popartic, Getty Images/iStockphoto

Google has brought its Trusted Contacts personal safety app for emergencies to Apple's mobile devices.

The app, which launched on Android last year, lets you set up select or 'trusted contacts' who can then check whether you're online and moving around. The app is meant for emergency situations or everyday situations if a contact wants to know you're OK.

Trusted contacts can request your location, but the app won't share that unless you don't respond within a set time. The app is available today on the App Store for iOS devices.

Google has also updated the app to offer more control when the app automatically shares your location.

If you're online, your contacts can check if you've moved around recently. If they're worried about you, they can request to see your location. Denying the request says you're OK, but in the original version, if you didn't respond within five minutes the device's location was automatically shared with the contact.

The app also allowed contacts to receive your phone's location if it's offline -- for occasions like hiking -- when you might be in an area without coverage. It also would share your last known location five minutes after the location request was made.

The app now lets you set the time before your location is automatically sent to a trusted contact who requested it. The delay, which can be adjusted in app settings, can be dialed up to an hour now, but is set to five minutes at install.

In the "view" page an instance you're sharing your location with your contact, you can also post updates and share links to a location on Google Maps.

Trusted contacts can now also be added by phone number and address.

Google has also expanded support to nine 9 languages including Amharic (Ethiopia), Greek (Greece), Persian (Iran), Bahasa (Indonesia), Macedonian (Macedonia), Burmese (Myanmar), Nepali (Nepal), Serbian (Serbia) and Urdu (Pakistan).

It's the second safety-related feature update this week from Google. The company this week also launched SOS alerts for Maps and Search.

from Latest Topic for ZDNet in... http://ift.tt/2tLXIfR