With the Made by Google event still over two weeks away, the Pixel 4 leak train continues running full steam. The latest likely leak of a Made by Google 2019 announcement comes in the form of the Personal Safety app, which, among other things, claims to detect car crashes on Pixel phones.
Most versions of the Android Q Beta came with an extra app installed, by the less than exciting name “Emergency Information.” The folks at XDA-Developers noticed that Google has created a new Play Store listing for this app under a new name, “Personal Safety,” and with a description of what the new app will be able to do.
Personal Safety is an app for Pixel phones that helps you stay safe and connected to first responders and your emergency contacts.
– If your phone detects that you’ve been in a car crash, it can help reach 911 for you. Car crash detection is available in the United States.
– Enter medical information and choose your emergency contacts. By default, this info is available when your phone is locked to help first responders.
– With emergency sharing, you can quickly share a short message and your current location with all of your emergency contacts.
The most obvious new benefit here, of course, is car crash detection. This was found once before in an early teardown of Personal Safety, but the Play Store confirms that Personal Safety will launch with car crash detection.
XDA, through some Play Store trickery, was able to obtain a copy of the app and go hands-on with it, showing an in-app demo of the car crash detection.
According to the demo, if your phone detects that you were in a car accident, you’ll first be given an opportunity to mark whether or not you are okay. If you don’t respond, the phone will call 911 and attempt to relay the situation and your location to emergency services. Or if, for whatever reason you’re unable to speak, you can also follow touch prompts to help explain the situation.
Further in the app, you can also manage your emergency information, and even send silent messages to your emergency contacts. The feature, called Emergency Sharing, allows you to send your location and a message about your current status to selected contacts. This should make for a safe way of alerting loved ones that you may be in trouble without alerting those around you.
Digging into the app’s code, XDA also found a reference to “PIXEL_2019_EXPERIENCE” which could indicate that Personal Safety may have features that are exclusive to the Google Pixel 4. We currently have no reason to believe that the accident detection is a Pixel 4 exclusive, however.
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