Thus, personal safety apps can be literal lifesavers to so many women.

My personal safety is important, and so is yours. From burner phone to apps that help you map your route, be prepared to go on a downloading spree once you’ve finished up with reading this list.

 

1. Burner Phone

Maybe you don’t want anyone texting you, or maybe you just want an easy way to turn someone down without feeling bad or like your safety is at risk.

When someone texts you, it’ll pop up like a regular text message on your phone, but you can later “burn” the number. After the number is burned, you’ll get a new burner number to use. That way, if you are dealing with someone constantly asking for your number, you can give them one (though not your real one), and you never have to think about it again. It’s a random number generator that actually works.

 

2. SafeCity 

In patriarchal societies like India, apps like these are incredibly important. While the world is rapidly developing, the freedoms are different. Speaking out about incidents of groping, molestation, and rape are incredibly rare—the government recorded only 24,915 accounts of rape in 2012.

With the SafeCity app, women are able to use an online map to show where the harassment happened anonymously. It can be done in two minutes and create a digital safety path for women all over the country. By alerting others where there is danger, one is able to avoid it all together. Not having to worry about unwarranted sexual advances, or worry a little less, is incredibly comforting.

 

3. Circle of Six

Originally designed for college students, this app was made to help to protect against sexual violence. Now it’s used for all of those reasons, along with teens, parents, and friends being able to use it to let people in their circle know where they are and how they can be helped.

This wonderful app is available for iPhones and Androids. It has direct links to hotlines, informational links, and even has a button where you literally ask someone to give you an interruption in order to help you get out of an uncomfortable situation. The fact that I can have the ability to do that makes me feel safer.

 

4. Hollaback

This website (not an app) is the United States version of SafeCity. It allows people to report their experiences, as well as the place, to keep the other potential receivers of sexual harassment a heads-up. Don’t see your city on the map? The Hollaback team is happy to train you to get the website going—no previous experience required.

Hollaback is also producing another website, HeartMob, specifically for reporting online harassment.

 

What other safety apps do you like to use? Sound off in the comments!

 

Cover image courtesy of Shutterstock.

By Jacqueline Wostrel on February 15, 2016
Jacqueline (Jackie) Wostrel is an editorial intern at HelloFlo, founder of the book blog No Bent Spines, and illustrator of the children’s book Hearts and Butterflies. She enjoys long walks to the book store, political debates, cheese plates, and dreaming of all the countries she has yet to explore. In the fall she’ll go to the University of Houston for Journalism and Hotel Restaurant Management.