If you've ever been stuck walking home alone at night in a particularly murdery looking neighborhood, you know how unsettling it can be.
Maybe that's why a new app called Companion that lets your friends or family "walk" with you is getting tens of thousands of downloads, according to International Business Times.
The personal safety app developed by students at the University of Michigan works like this:
The person with the app who's walking home sends out a request to the people they want to virtually accompany them. Those people (who don't need the app) get a text with a link that will allow them to track the walker via GPS to see that they get home OK.
In addition, the app will ask if you're OK if the phone detects that you've fallen down, been pushed, started running or had your headphones yanked out of the jack. If any of those happen, you'll have 15 seconds to hit a button to show you're alright, or the app will sound an alarm to scare people away.
It can also be set to automatically call police, or to give the people who are tracking you an option to call the police for you.
The app is currently available for Android and iOS.
