SOS and crash detection, free.

What happens after a crash

1. The screen lights up, even locked, and an alarm sounds with vibration, even with the phone on silent.
2. Two minutes are announced in your helmet, with a reminder at 60, 30 and 10 seconds.
3. With no answer from you, each chosen contact gets a text with your position and a map link.
4. A call opens to the contact you picked.

Cancel with gloves on

Four gestures cancel the alert, any of them: say it ("cancel", "I'm fine", "stop"), press any key on the phone, the volume key for example, touch the screen anywhere, or the big button. A negated phrase does not cancel, and the microphone does not listen while the alert is speaking.

How a crash is recognised

Rather than a single threshold, VOKPIT weighs seven clues: impact, free fall, tumble, loss of attitude, stillness, speed collapse, riding just before. It also requires a clear signature: an impact, a tumble with a jolt, or a speed collapse with loss of attitude or free fall. No sensor is essential: losing GPS does not stop detection.

Sensitivity has three settings, Cautious, Balanced (default) and Sensitive. It changes how many matching clues are required, never the physical thresholds. Today, detection is tuned for motorcycling, the first module; each module will bring its own. Like any automatic detection, it can miss a crash or get it wrong: manual SOS stays within voice reach.

SOS by voice or button

Say "SOS": the alert goes out at once, and you are told it was sent. ("Play SOS" plays the song, not the alert.) The button on the SOS screen opens the alert full screen, with two minutes to cancel.

What your loved ones receive

• One text per number, in the app language, with your position and a map link. It says an SOS alert was triggered or, after a crash, that the alert is automatic and was not cancelled. Without a recent position, it still goes, marked "Location unavailable".
• A call, to the one contact you picked. Without permission to call, the dialler opens ready, and you press call.
• An option, off by default, also opens the dialler on 112: you make that call. No assistance centre receives VOKPIT alerts.

Android and iPhone

On Android, the text goes on its own and monitoring runs in the background, shown by a permanent "Crash detection active" notification with a button to turn it off. It starts again after the phone restarts if it was on; some manufacturers block that automatic start, in which case opening VOKPIT once is enough.

On iPhone, Messages opens with the text ready and the call opens in Phone, which asks for confirmation. Crash detection works there while VOKPIT is on screen, during guidance, a ride recording or live tracking.

No signal, no permission

Texts and calls go over the mobile network, not the internet. Where the phone has no coverage at all, the text does not go: it goes out on its own when the network returns, for up to an hour, marked as sent late with the time of the alert, while VOKPIT is running. Without permission to send texts, the contact is still called.

Detection is off by default and is turned on in the SOS screen. Nothing goes out without your agreement and at least one contact. For the alert to show on a locked phone, Android needs notification and full-screen permissions; the SOS screen points out the one that is missing.

With a module: live tracking and arrival

With any module, live tracking sends your loved ones a link they open in a browser, with no account: your position, your speed, the battery, and the destination with arrival time if guidance is running. The link dies at the end of the ride. On Android, a "safely arrived" text can also go on its own when guidance reaches its destination, marked as automatic.

Questions