Caller ID and telephone search engine, Truecaller has launched a new app for personal safety: Guardians. Designed with personal safety and ease-of-use in mind. Available as a free download from Google Play Store and Apple App Store, the app boasts of no ads or premium tiers.

“Guardians was born out of a simple question - how can we crowdsource personal safety, just like the way we crowdsource protection against spam, scams and frauds with Truecaller?” said Alan Mamedi, CEO & Co-founder of True Software Scandinavia AB.

The makers believe that they have the right tools and the conviction to make Guardians happen.

“Our engineering team has a proven track record of building great user experiences and we have also crossed the milestone of 270 Million active users (200 Million in India alone). With this kind of reach, our past four years of research on women’s safety and campaigns like #ItsNokOk, we now understand this problem well. It’s now time to do something about making our cities safer for everyone!” Mamedi added.

The app was being built over the past 15 months by a dedicated team from Stockholm and India.

How Guardians Works:

Guardians has a simple onboarding process. If you are already a Truecaller user, you can sign in with one tap. If you’re not a Truecaller user, your phone number will be verified using a missed call or OTP. The app needs only three permissions: your location, contacts (so that you can select and invite your personal Guardians) and phone permission (to show your phone status to your Guardians).

The venture claims, as a user of Guardians, you are in complete control at all times. You can select your own personal Guardians from your contact list, choose when to stop/start sharing location and setup permanent sharing with selected Guardians. If you are just sharing your location for a particular trip, Guardians works quietly in the background. If you don’t feel safe or are facing an emergency situation, tap the emergency button to notify all your Guardians about your location and situation.

In emergency mode, your Guardians will be notified and will be able to precisely follow your location, reach your location or be able to send help. In normal mode, the app is designed to quietly run in the background and share location intermittently while preserving battery life. Emergency mode will also share your location with community Guardians who may be in the vicinity. Accepting help from the community is your choice.

Soon, you can also get help from local law enforcement through the app - so that you can get help in the shortest span of time.

The app claims that no personal information is shared with any third party apps for commercial use, including its very own Truecaller app.

Truecaller was founded in 2009 by Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam. Its investors include Sequoia Capital, Atomico and Kleiner Perkins.

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)

First Published:Mar 3, 2021 6:43 PM IST