Trusted Contacts was a personal safety app that allowed a list of trusted contacts to request the location of the user in case of an emergency.
The app had a 3.8 rating on the play store and over a million downloads, but these were not good enough numbers to make it a worthwhile project for Google. Upon shutdown, Google sent emails to users claiming that the app is obsolete since location sharing is integrated into Google maps.
That said, this comparison is not entirely fair, since Google Maps location sharing doesn’t allow your contacts to receive your location on demand. This makes it much less useful if you find yourself in a dangerous situation and are unable to proactively share your location with your contacts (e.g. you are unconscious, etc.). At the same time, Trusted Contacts didn’t have an always-on location setting like the one in Google Maps.
The current Pixel-exclusive Personal Safety app has a similar goal to the one of Trusted Contacts, but instead of sharing location on demand, it allows you to schedule a safety check that will alert your contacts if you don’t answer.
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