There are a lot of personal safety apps, but Arlo Safe delivers a unique combination of services that can get you the help you need. The core of the app is access to a live 24/7 safety concierge service, like what established companies Life 360 and Noonlight offer. But, unlike these and other personal safety apps, Arlo Safe adds the ability to use your phone’s camera to record audio and video when you’re in an emergency, as well as store the recording in the cloud for later access. The feature, called Cloud Witness Incident Recording, could be extremely useful if you need to identify a perpetrator, if you need to document being stalked, or even if you want to record an encounter with the police.
With Cloud Witness Incident Recording, you can choose to send audio and video to the emergency service center to help the staff better understand what’s happening. This feature may be critical if you cannot communicate due to injury or other circumstances. And if you need to revisit the incident, you can access the recording from your Arlo account.
In addition to Arlo’s unique video recording feature, the app also has Crash Detection & Response. When the phone experiences speed and forces consistent with a vehicular crash, the Arlo Safe app will call its emergency response team for help. It does not contact emergency services directly, like Apple’s new Crash Detection feature for iPhone and Apple Watch.
You can press and hold the Arlo Walk with Me button whenever you feel uncomfortable and might need help, but you're not sure if it is really an emergency. If you release the button, the app will call for help. If you don’t need help, you simply input a personal code to cancel the call. The Walk with Me panic button feature is similar to what is found in my other free personal safety service recommendations.
The Cloud Witness Incident Recording, Crash Detection & Response, and Walk with Me features are all included in Arlo's Individual Plan, which is $4.99 per month and covers one person. A Family Plan for $9.99 per month covers unlimited users and includes additional features to help families stay safe. With the Family plan, you’ll be able to set up alerts so you know when your children arrive home and other commonly visited places, like school and after-school activities. In addition, family members can send you their location through Family Check-ins, and you can send help to family members through the Family Safety Monitoring feature.
If you plan on using the service for a year, you should purchase the Arlo Safe Family Bundle ($119.99 for one year of service), which includes two Arlo Safe Buttons. The Arlo Safe Buttons are discrete, keychain-sized panic buttons that you can press to call for help instead of using the app. Note that the Safe Button does need to be within Bluetooth range of your phone running the Arlo Safe app to make the call.
With any security company, reputation is essential. Arlo is an established company that is known for its highly-rated home DIY security systems, security cameras, and video doorbells. And the company already has an established 24/7 emergency response service for its home security products that is used for the Arlo app.
[Image credit: Arlo]
For the past 20+ years, Techlicious founder Suzanne Kantra has been exploring and writing about the world’s most exciting and important science and technology issues. Prior to Techlicious, Suzanne was the Technology Editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and the Senior Technology Editor for Popular Science. Suzanne has been featured on CNN, CBS, and NBC.
