New App Lets Users Virtually Walk Their Friends Home At Night

A new app which allows users to virtually walk their friends home at night has been downloaded by tens of thousands of people.

The Companion app, which was created by five University of Michigan students, allows its users to request a friend to keep an eye on their journey home, by using their GPS as a tracker.

The virtual companion will see the movements of their friend on a map, letting them know exactly where they are, and how close they are to reaching home. You don't even need to have downloaded the app, which is available on both Android and iOS, to be able to view your friend's movements.

The requests can be sent out to multiple contacts at a time, giving you a better chance of finding someone to keep an eye on your journey, and once the request goes out the intended recipient will receive a a message with a hyperlink that brings them to the interactive map.

If the users takes an unusual path, falls, takes a sudden or unnatural movement (being pushed), starts running, or takes their headphones out of the jack, the app gives them 15 seconds to respond to its "Are you OK?" message before turning the phone into a personal alarm system which produces loud noises in the hope of scaring off an attacker/alert people nearby.

It also gives the user the option to instantly call the police, as well as giving your virtual companion the option to provide the authorities with your location.

Via Business Insider