Anatomy of a press
The first few seconds.
Press and hold the switch and everything fires in parallel. The phone never leaves your hand. The screen never asks you to choose. You can drop the phone, throw it, run, and the alert keeps going.
Free forever. Your four contacts and the Vigil Guard members on your street are alerted with your live location, no card needed. Your street lights up as neighbours join.
The prepared message
Exactly what your circle hears.
Set it once, calmly, in your own time. When the moment comes, you don't have to say a word.
"This is Sarah's Vigil Guard alert. She held her panic switch at 14 Linden Avenue, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122. Her live location is on the map in this alert. Medical notes: asthmatic, no other conditions. Two adults and two children are on the premises."
Lucas, our standard voice: calm, Australian, clear. You can also record your own.
You record this once during setup, in your own voice or in ours. Update it any time. Your contacts hear exactly what you have written when they answer the call.
What the alert does
The alert goes out.
Your circle moves.
One press fans out to everyone at once: your name, your live location, a live map, and the message you recorded. No menu to read, no number to dial. Drop the phone and the alert keeps going.
What fires when you hold
- 01Your four contacts ring on parallel lines. They all get the call at the same instant, not one after another.
- 02Your live location lands with every alert. Each contact opens a map and watches you move in real time.
- 03SMS backs up every call, so a missed ring still reaches them with your message and your map link.
- 04The same alert lights up the Vigil Guard members on your street with your live location, so verified neighbours nearby know too. Free, no card.
- 05If it is life-threatening, you call 000 yourself. The app gives you a one-tap button for it. Vigil Guard never dials 000 for you.
In a life-threatening emergency, call 000 yourself
There is no call centre and no two-way voice line to set up. The strength of the street alert comes from your verified neighbours: real residents who vouch for each other on Lookout build a network that is hard to spoof and quick to respond.
The questions everybody asks
Honest, unhedged.
What happens if I can't speak: at all?
Nothing stops. The alert carries your name, your live location, a live map and the message you recorded. Your four contacts get all of it without you saying a word, and so do the Vigil Guard members on your street. They act on it. If it is life-threatening, you can also call 000 yourself.
Does it cost anything?
No. The panic switch is free forever, no card. It alerts your four contacts and the Vigil Guard members on your street with your live location, and SMS backs up every call. Guardian ($5/mo founder rate) adds solo-safety extras like the watched Guardian Walk with auto-escalation and the Steady companion. The panic fan-out itself is never paywalled.
Does Vigil Guard call 000 for me?
No. Vigil Guard alerts your four contacts and your street with your live location. We do not dial emergency services on your behalf. In a life-threatening emergency, call 000 yourself: the panic switch makes sure the people closest to you know and can move at the same time.
What if I press it by accident?
Three-second hold to start. Five-second silent cancel window after release. A final tap-to-confirm. If you do reach the live alert, you can also stand it down from any device in your circle, partner, family, neighbour, by tapping "stand down" inside their copy of the alert.
Will my circle know what triggered it?
They see "Sarah pressed her Vigil Guard panic switch" and a live map of her location. They do not see camera feeds, microphone audio, or anything else from your phone. We are an alert system, not a surveillance system.
What if nobody in my circle picks up?
SMS fires to every contact in parallel, and your street network is alerted with your live location at the same instant. The call is one layer, not the only layer. And in a life-threatening emergency you can always call 000 yourself.
Part of one system
The same alert, more ways in.
Walk me home
Set an ETA and the app pings your live location the whole way. Miss your check-in or go silent and it fires the same panic alert to your circle with your last location. Steady walks beside you in stages when you feel followed.
See Walk me home →A street you can trust
Your street alert is only as good as the people on it. On Lookout, neighbours vouch for real residents and build a verified constellation. More verified neighbours means a network that is harder to spoof and quicker to respond.
See Lookout →Panic membership
One button. Four people.
Your whole street.
Thank you. We'll be in touch.