Communication Without Borders

Most of the smartphones today are being shipped with a feature called Location Services. Like the name suggests smartphone users can now share their current location with anyone they wish to. Previously looked upon as a privacy killer, Location Sharing has within 2 years become a must have feature for smartphone users.

Location Sharing has a lot of uses and one of its best usages is in an emergency situation.

There are many emergency situations that may occur where you need assistance.

There are a wide range of emergency and semi emergency situations. Some of them might be medical situations where you have high fever, an asthma attack or severe chest pain and you feel immobilized - you just need someone to come get you immediately and provide or arrange for assistance.

Other situations may not be so grave but you might get lost in a new city and the friend you are trying to visit might need to come get you from where you are.

In almost every such situation the most crucial piece of information is your current location. You will invariable try to call someone and let them know where you are - I am at home, come get me. I am lost, I do not know where I am, I can see Starbucks coffee and a Shell gas station.

In many of these situations we fail to give our precise location to the persons trying to assist you. There are also times when the person you are trying to reach is not reachable and you waste crucial time trying to reach other contacts.

While your current location is the first most important piece of information in an emergency, the second most important factor is time.

How soon can someone come assist you?

The sooner the person trying to assist you can get all the information about you, faster he or she will be able to assist or arrange for assistance. If multiple contacts can get this information in the shortest time then you multiply your chances of being assisted on time.

If you are an iPhone user, now there is an app just to do that.

SOS Pro is a location sharing app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, which helps users in an emergency to broadcast their current location to multiple users with just the touch of a button.

The app sends your current location to multiple contacts saved in your emergency list. It can send out an SMS and Email containing your location information and a custom message. The app also places a call to one contact form your list.