Limitations of personal safety apps

While personal safety apps have been shown to bring benefits for women and girls in public spaces, it is important to recognise that they are not value free. Like with all interventions to tackle VAWG, there are limitations to their use, and these are discussed below.

Functionality flaws

New technologies carry the potential for functionality flaws. Most apps offer some incident assistance (Ford et al., 2022) however these are operated in-app which assumes that the user can access these features in an emergency. Maxwell et al., (2020) found that forty-six apps in their study did not work when tested. Claims that the apps were activated by the user running, if the phone was dropped or if earphones were pulled out were not always founded. A study looking at the user reviews from eighty-six apps in the UK found that common issues cited were download failures, issues with registration, and app functionality following software updates (Ford et al., 2022).

Masud et al., (2022) found the following functionality flaws with personal safety apps: not delivering messages on time, issues with social media integration, high battery consumption, app crashes, apps unable to function in the background, audio-video recording malfunctions to name a few. These functionality flaws have the potential to put women in precarious situations (Masud et al.,2022). To mitigate the risk of battery draining, the BtP implemented phone charging points across stations in England, Scotland and Wales (College of Policing, 2023). Another barrier to accessing apps is poor Wi-Fi on trains or underground lines. Users can report offline, and alerts will be automatically sent when Internet access is restored, however this delay means that reliance on the app could pose potential risks.

McGrath (2016) looked at the usefulness of apps to enhance the safety of university students suggesting that there are ten questions which should be posed when assessing the effectiveness of an app including: ensuring it has a robust platform, secure data storage, features that work offline, accessibility features, that the app does not interfere during an emergency, that it can support users with linguistic barriers and that it has features for community reporting.

Potentially slow response times and inaccurate location sharing

Another functionality flaw relates to response times. A report by Transport Scotland (2023) found some scepticism among the women and girls who took part in the study around the potentially slow response times from the BtP. Similarly, apps that work with a network of pre-determined contacts to intervene in an emergency assumes that the alert will be taken seriously, and that the emergency contact can reach the user in time (Maxwell et al., 2020). Issues around potentially inaccurate location-sharing or the misinterpretation of data can be problematic also (Eisenhut et al., 2020). Indeed, tracking a phone is not necessarily conducive to safety, as the phone may be lost or discarded. Further issues relate to the unintentional triggering of alarms, which can cause undue upset and can also have cost implications (Natarajan, 2016).

Lack of clarity around pricing

Other issues relate to lack of clarity around pricing. While most personal safety apps are free, others have an associated cost ranging from about £18- £25 (20-40 Euros) per year (Tozzo et al., 2020). Free apps can also be monetised via revenue from advertising (UK Government, 2022). Ford et al., (2022) found that 60.5% of apps in their study were completely free of charge, while the remaining apps charged for additional features. Their study found a lack of clarity around pricing also, where some apps marketed themselves as being free, but required payment for additional features. Ford et al., (2022) argue that app developers need to be more transparent about these cost implications.

Issues around accessibility

There are additional concerns around the accessibility of personal safety apps. A study in India tested 50 personal safety apps to check their accessibility features for visually impaired users (Ranganathan, 2017). It concluded that none of the apps were fully accessible with a screen reader, colour contrasts were not accessible, and buttons and text were not large enough to be accessible for visually impaired users (Ranganathan, 2017). Accessibility was a key theme to emerge in Doria et al’s., (2021) narrative scoping review, where five studies found that apps could be made more accessible. Suggestions include making navigation functions standard across apps and allowing users to connect with support services directly through the app. Ison & Mattewson (2023) posit that for apps to be fully inclusive, they need to be co-designed with users (Ison & Mattewson, 2023).