Google Map’s New Companion

Updated January 12, 2023

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Never Walk Home Alone

Google Maps partnered with an app development company called Companion to help your walk home to be safer. We all know that feeling you sometimes get walking down a street alone at night. Something spooks you. A car backfiring, a dark parking garage, a person walking behind you on the sidewalk. Then you’re on edge all the way home. Now there’s an app that walks you home as your companion, communicating with a select list of contacts should trouble arise.

Companion API to Google Maps

Companion allows you to share your location, via Google Maps, with a list of contacts that you suggest. They can see your location on the map, and are notified immediately when you tap your smartphone’s screen if you feel uneasy. You have the choice of the app asking if you’re okay or to call emergency services.

You don’t have to touch the screen to notify your contacts, however. Any sudden change in speed (walking to running) or if you unplug your headphones, will result in an alert on your phone. Then you have 15 seconds to say you’re ‘okay.’ If you don’t respond, your contacts will automatically be notified.

For Companion, partnering with Google was important. Too many apps like theirs try to create their own mapping network. Or, they try to use a popular site (like Facebook) which creates confusion and complicates using the app. But with Google Maps working alongside them, they have been able to create a simple, useful app, that slots in with what you are using already.

Companion For Business

Could this app help your business? While the main aim of Companion is to help people feel safer, there are business applications for the software. Apart from the obvious uses, like keeping track of delivery drivers, or an employee when they travel on a business trip, you could also use it at conferences and trade shows. For example, you could set up a pre -determined meeting point and watch as your team network their way around the venue, and work their way back to you.

How would you use Companion?

Photo credit – Top: Aaron Parecki
Photo credit – Bottom: Vincent Albanese