Get Home Safe app celebrates first year with encouraging growth

Image caption:  Get Home Safe privately tracks your activity to ensure your safety.



Screen grab of Get Home Safe which acts as a guardian angel for everyday activities.

Kiwi-owned safety app Get Home Safe has had a bumper first year in business exceeding its predicted downloads by thousands and an “encouraging” amount of interest from corporate clients looking to adapt the service.

The first app of its kind out of New Zealand, Get Home Safe (GHS) launched in late 2013 and immediately stormed to the number one spot in the New Zealand iTunes app store.


Queenstown-based creator of Get Home Safe Boyd Peacock.

The brainchild of Kiwi entrepreneur Boyd Peacock, it was developed with services provided by Dunedin-based website and design company Firebrand.

Combining a heap of safety features including a safety timer, GPS tracking and alerts sent even without a working phone or coverage, GHS provides peace of mind for people undertaking everyday activities where there’s a potential risk.

Mr Peacock said the last 12 months had been “hugely rewarding” for him and the team and even bigger than he’d anticipated.

“I knew I was onto a good idea. I was surrounded by examples of how the app could potentially save people’s lives or prevent unnecessary injury due to people falling into trouble and being unable to call for help,” he said.

“It’s certainly flown by and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response. It all started with the iOS launch back in August with unprecedented media coverage which resulted in a number of enquiries from everyday users and corporates.”

Mr Peacock launched Get Home Safe in Australia in November 2013 and worldwide gradually.

“GHS is now available in over 100 countries and most of our new users are now coming from outside New Zealand,” he said.

The app business is hugely competitive and industry research shows that of the million plus apps on the market, most apps (around 734,000 of them) don’t reach more than 10,000 downloads.

“It’s no Angry Birds, but we’re extremely pleased with our download and sign-up figures considering the sheer number of apps out there and the fact the average person will download just 25.

“In just 12 months we’ve breezed past our first year goal of 10,000 downloads, which is quite an achievement for a little start-up company,” said Mr Peacock.

“Get Home Safe provides reassurance to a few hundred people a week doing anything and everything from hitchhiking to simply walking home from work or working alone on the farm.”

“Since the launch there have been numerous stories in the media of boaties, hunters, fishermen and everyday people getting into difficulty and being unable to call for help.”
“Just last week someone had to set their car on fire to get attention after being trapped for hours in a car that had left the road.

“I watch some of these accounts knowing Get Home Safe could have helped raise the alarm, meaning the outcome may have been different. It’s now about education,” said Mr Peacock.

“It’s encouraging to hear feedback and stories from around the globe of Get Home Safe helping people such as one North Island hunter who needed to raise the alarm to get him out of a tricky situation.”

“It’s now a case of educating even more people that the system can and has helped. The app is a much safer way of letting people know what you are up to.”

“Any time you’ve said “I will call you when I get home” or “I am just leaving now, see you in three hours”, you could have used GHS,” he said.

Get Home Safe’s stellar year was buoyed along when it was named a finalist in the 2013 New Zealand innovation awards.

The future of the app looks bright with plans underway to grow the business and expand into the corporate market.

Get Home Safe has recently teamed up with Emmy award-winning app developer Stu Sharpe, who was part of the team behind the America’s Cup App, led by Dunedin's Animation Research Ltd.

Firebrand will still assist with design and API services while Stu will work on ongoing app development.

“Stu’s expertise and knowledge is world-class and we’re over the moon he’s on board to help take GHS to the next level.

“Now we’re up and running the aim is to grow awareness of when, why and how people can use a safety app,” said Mr Peacock.

“We’re also working with a number of national corporate businesses to adapt the app to their company needs. This is focused around people working in industries where there may be a risk to their safety from others and those who work remotely and alone in rural areas.”

“This is an exciting area of expansion for us and one we want to launch next year with a couple of high-profile companies already on board,” he said.

Get Home Safe is a great solution for corporations with people working out of the office to replace existing manual journey management and phone in/phone out systems as well.

“It’s been one heck of a year and the future looks very exciting. If GHS can save even just a few people, then I’m happy. That’s exactly why I came up with the idea,” said Mr Peacock.
The GHS idea was inspired after Mr Peacock read about a boating accident in New Zealand’s Foveaux Straight in 2012 when a group of fishermen’s boat sank with all their mobile phones and emergency equipment on board.

“I thought to myself, if only someone was monitoring the use and location of a smart phone on board it could have been apparent much earlier that the fishermen had capsized and even where it happened, the alarm could have been raised much earlier,” Mr Peacock said.

Get Home Safe –reminder of how it works
The app privately monitors users’ located on during an activity or task and raises a pre-set alarm if they don’t ‘’Get Home Safe’ as planned.

GHS is aimed at people from all walks of life undertaking everyday activities such as children walking home from school alone, women travelling home after a night out and people working unsupervised.

Via a free smartphone app users register with GHS what they intend on doing, such as walking home after dark, working in a remote location, and the time they will be ‘home safe’, for example in 15 minutes or four hours.

GHS then acts as a ‘guardian angel’ safely recording GPS location data and sending check-in prompts to privately watch over the user’s movements throughout their chosen activity.

If something unforeseen happens and the user doesn’t stop or extend tracking as planned, an alarm is raised and the information GHS safely recorded is sent to pre-selected personal emergency contacts.

As the alarm is sent from the GHS servers not the phone, users don’t need a working phone or coverage for the alarm to be raised.

It is free to download from Apple’s App Store at https://itunes.apple.com/app/id654865653 and Google Play Store via https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gethomesafe

The app is free to use in an unlimited email only format.  Within the app users can choose to buy pre-paid text messages for US 20 cents each, with a minimum purchase of 10 for US $1.99, and upgrade to text message alerts. Unused text alerts are credited back to users if they check in on time.

The app is ad free and user’s information and privacy is treated with the upper most respect. Get Home Safe follows industry best practice to ensure the security of any information stored.