Think of Bluetooth trackers and safety in the past few years and your first thought might be the misuse of Apple AirTags and similar devices against women in domestic abuse and stalking cases.
Alongside collaborative initiatives to counter and shut down these malicious uses (such as the IETF’s Detection of Unwanted Location Trackers, or DULT, standard), tracker makers themselves are flipping the script, turning tech that has been used to monitor women against their will into tech that protects them.
In mid-July, Seattle-based Pebblebee announced a new, free SOS safety feature, named Alert, for its $35 Clip Bluetooth tracker which, like the rest of its Universal line-up, can be set up with either Apple’s Find My or Google’s Find Hub networks, is made from around 30 percent recycled plastic and runs on a rechargeable battery, with 12+ months between USB-C charges.
When multi-pressed (six-plus presses), the Clip can trigger a siren alarm, flashing LED lights and automatically send an SMS text notification to one “Safety Circle” contact that you’ve pre-saved in the Pebblebee app.
Courtesy of Peebblebee
It’s simple to set up the contact in the app, and a long press on the device shuts off the siren and LEDs, though it’s unlikely you’ll fumble or accidentally set this one off. The Clip’s siren isn’t as loud and the lights don’t cover as much radius as a dedicated personal alarm would, but they’re enough to alert passersby when out walking at night. Plus, the Pebblebee website states: “The Alert functionality including the siren, strobe, and first Safety Circle contact is and will always be completely free.”
We tested out the SOS system and it worked without a hiccup. Our Safety Circle buddy received a text saying: “URGENT: Sophie activated a Pebblebee Alert. Please check in immediately” with a link to the correct location via Google Maps. Clicking the “Mark as safe” button in the app and/or long-pressing on the Clip sends a follow-up text to say “Sophie cancelled their Pebblebee Alert” with the last location link.
Now, however, Pebblebee is adding a paid-for subscription option, named Alert Live, which offers a Safety Circle of up to five contacts to receive the SOS text notification when triggered via the Clip, plus live location tracking for these contacts, for $3 a month or $26 a year. There’s also a new Silent Mode, which sends the alert without the siren and LEDs, for both free and paid-for users: useful, though we haven’t had the chance to test this or the new real-time location sharing out yet.