Google releases Trusted Contacts, a new personal safety app

Today Google has launched a new app for Android. It's called Trusted Contacts and the company describes it as "a new personal safety app". It relies heavily on geolocation, and because of that fact it may be thought of as a successor of sorts to Google Latitude. Some features from Latitude are in Trusted Contacts, but the new app is much more focused on emergency situations.

Trusted Contacts lets you share your location with, well, some trusted contacts. And you also get to see where your closest friends and family are if they've chosen to share their locations with you. First you need to assign the "Trusted" status to people. They will then be able to see your activity status - if you've moved recently and if you're online.

Then if you ever find yourself in a situation in which you feel unsafe, you can share your actual location with your trusted contacts. This works the other way too - if your trusted contacts are worried about you, they can request to see your location. You can deny the request if you're fine, but if you don't respond "within a reasonable timeframe", your location will automatically be shared.

Naturally, you can stop sharing your location at any time, and change your trusted contacts when you want to. The Trusted Contacts app works even when you're offline, so if someone requests your location and you aren't connected to the internet, they'll get your last known location.

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