Sentinel : A must-have app for Women [review]

Mindhelix, which brought us the Tuk Tuk meter has now brought another useful app  aimed for women’s security. The app is called Sentinel and is available for Android, Symbian(Java) and Blackberry.

Sentinel sends text messages to 3 numbers and an emergency email to 1 recipient with just one click during emergency situations.

Sentinel has to be set-up initially with an emergency phone number and an emergency email. All app operations can be carried out only by entering a password. GPS has to be turned on for the app to give effective results. Once the set-up is done – emergency numbers entered, emergency email entered and GPS turned on – the app and the person is ready to go out.

In emergency situations, all you have to do is bring up the app and click on the sentinel button. Text messages will be sent to the emergency numbers you have entered and an email will also be sent. The emergency contacts will receive an SMS message about the situation along with the GPS location. However, I couldn’t get the GPS location to work. The GPS location in the text message was blank. In addition, the journey details can also be added with the mode of journey and provision for the registration number of the vehicle which will be stored in Mindhelix’s register. Short, sweet and simple.

The Sentinel’s logo appears thrice on the central landing screen, which makes the app a little confusing. Since this is a security app used for emergency situations, having all the info on the central screen isn’t recommended. Here are the things which will make the app even better :

• After the initial set-up, the central screen should have one big fat Sentinel button to be pressed and everything else miniaturized. This set-up would increase the scope of the pressing area in panic situations. All other things can be shown as small icons.
• There is no need for instructions to appear all the time.
• In addition to the text messages, Sentinel should be calling the three numbers continuously until at least one number picks up. An SOS feature some phones already have.

Sentinel reminds me of Oh! there’s a phone for that post I have written. There were two phones – iBall Aasaan and Intex Vision – which had the SOS functionality. A big button was present at the back of the phone, pulling it will send out text messages and phone calls to the emergency contacts fed. Sentinel is a logical extension of the same concept.

Sentinel from MindHelix is a a novel and really useful app.

Links : Sentinel download