Buoy as a safe call system
Better Angels' Buoy can send reminders to your friends at times you specify asking them to check in with you. This is sometimes also called a "safe call" and makes it possible to call for help even when you have no access to the Internet or your device.
- Personas:
- Persona-Carol the community resident
- Persona-Alice the alternative medical first responder
- Key features:
- Scheduled alerts
Carol is excited for her date tonight. She met someone at the school cafeteria late last week and after a bit of flirtation, the two friended one another on Facebook. After a few more rounds of instant messaging, she happily agreed to join her date at a private party.
The party venue is somewhere she's never been, in a part of town she doesn't know well. Carol would like to tell her friend Persona-Alice the alternative medical first responder about the date, whom she always feel safer around, but feels a bit embarrassed. What if the date doesn't actually end up happening? What if she's just overreacting?
Thankfully, Alice had previously introduced Carol to Buoy, and explained how to set up "timed alerts." Carol can use this feature of Buoy to send Alice an alert, letting her friend know where she is and what she needs, only if something bad happens.
Carol picks up her phone and presses the "Buoy: Activate Alert" app icon to open the Buoy panic button screens:
Carol presses the top-left button, the one with the clock icon on it, to open the "Scheduled alert" dialog window:
Carol glances at the top of her phone. The clock reads 4:30pm. Her date is at 7:30pm. "If the date goes well, I should be out 'til at least 10pm. But if I'm not back by 2am, something might have gone wrong," Carol says to herself. She taps inside the "Send alert at" field, which reveals a date and time picker. She chooses 2am of the following day. Then she taps over to the next field, "Crisis message." Here, she writes:
went on a date in the Chelsea neighborhood, I should've been back by now. Call me ASAP, I could be in trouble.
Carol knows this message will be sent to her response team only if 2am rolls around and she has not yet canceled the alert. She clicks the "Schedule alert" button and is greeted by the success message. She closes her phone, and continues on with her day, preparing for her date.
Carol's date goes well and she returns home with a happy smile shortly after 1am. As she closes her dorm room door behind her, now back in safe and familiar surroundings, she again takes her phone from her pocket and taps the "Buoy" app icon, revealing the panic button screens. This time, however, she taps the "Active alert" icon at the top of the screen, revealing a menu that shows her one option, reading: "Cancel alert set for 2am." She taps that button, canceling the alert.
Carol's date is aggressive and pushy. She wants to leave the party but doesn't have a ride home. Her date insists that she stay. 1am rolls around. Things are getting rowdier at the party, people are drinking, and Carol feels uncomfortable. When 2am rolls around, since Carol has not yet cancelled her scheduled alert, Buoy automatically sends an alert to all the people on Carol's response team without requiring her to ever touch her phone.
At 2:04am, Carol gets a txt. It's Alice, one of the people on Carol's response team. The txt from Alice reads:
How's the date in Chelsea going?
Carol txts back:
Ugh, not good. He's my ride but he's getting drunk. I want to go home.
When Alice receives this reply, she knows Carol needs help. The first thing Alice does is tap the link in the Buoy notification. This opens up the Buoy responder screen:
Since the alert is scheduled, there is no location information shown. However, Carol's initial alert predicted her location, so Alice can see that she is 35 minutes away by car from that part of town. Next, Alice clicks the "Respond" link, and this takes her to the Buoy incident chat screen:
In the chat, she sees that David, her friend from the medical collective she volunteers at, is already in the chat and, better yet, is only 10 minutes by car from the Chelsea neighborhood, where Carol is. She taps in the chat window and types:
Hey David, you're closer to Chelsea than I am. Can you give Carol a ride home?
David replies:
Yeah, just chilling anyway. Address?
Alice types:
Hang on.
Then Alice txts Carol:
My friend David, I know him from the medic collective, can pick you up in 10min. Do you know the address where you are?
A few moments, Carol txts back and address, and Alice copies-and-pastes that into the Buoy chat room for David.
Ten minutes later, David arrives at the party to pick Carol up and take her home.