The York U Safety app is cute, but won’t be too useful in a real emergency.
In a move to improve safety on campus, York released a smartphone safety app way back in February. But it’s a testament to the poor marketing of the potentially useful tool that some of us in the Excalibur office didn’t even know it existed until very recently.
With summer classes underway, many taking place late in the evening, and less people on campus, quick access to safety tools may let many students breathe a little easier.
But the practicality of some of the York U Safety app’s features is questionable.
The app’s home screen displays nine different features, including an emergency alarm, a a safety toolbox, and access to hotline numbers and emails, campus maps, GoSafe shuttle times, and safety tips. It’s an all-encompassing package, and it seems the administration thought everything through.
In a real emergency, however, having to click through two screens to sound a fairly quiet, mildly irritating siren is not a practical solution. There is no universal alarm sound, and considering that, coupled with the fact that it only goes as loud as your phone’s internal speakers, it’s pretty unlikely anyone in the surrounding area would respond to the sound. It might be more useful to shine the app’s flashlight in your attacker’s eyes, rendering them blind and useless, while you do something worthwhile, like phone the police.
Links to campus maps and GoSafe shuttle schedules that take you to the York website also aren’t very useful if you have no data plan and can’t get WiFi.
The app is well-intentioned, with other useful tools, like options to call GoSafe and York Security directly from the app, and a way to email photos of potential safety hazards to Security from your phone. In the event an emergency, though, the app would most likely be useless. It’s much better suited for use as a precautionary tool, or in the worst-case scenario, following an incident to get in touch with the Security team.
Released first in the Android and Apple app stores in January, the York U Safety app became available to Blackberry users in March.
You can download the York app by visiting: http://safety.yorku.ca/mobileapp/.
Ashlee Mitchell
Multimedia Editor
