SOSMS

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  Poster

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  Infographic

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  App Icon

Inspiration

We vividly recall the uncertainties and fears associated with moments such as walking alone at night or grappling with overwhelming emotions, where the simple presence of a friend could provide much-needed comfort and support. These experiences allowed us to empathize deeply with the anxieties many face during vulnerable situations, which indeed with age, do not go away. Walking to and from school is a daily routine, yet according to The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children, those are the times where school children are at greater risk for experiencing a possible abduction. Many students in the US travel around unaccompined by an adult, leaving them to be easy targets at their young age. Another prevelant issue that the youth faces today is mental health. Stated by UCLA Health, "suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds," and for every suicide there are a number of chances, which the CDC expresses through growing percentages of teens considering suicide.
These two cases and many more just like them prove to be a big problem that not just adolescents face, but everybody. And a common factor that plays a role in the aid that is provided to those experiencing these grievous moments, is the importance of time.

What it does

SOSMS allows individuals to send silent alerts to their trusted contacts, instantly notifying them of their situation, whether it's feeling threatened, lost, in emotional distress, or in immediate danger.

How we built it

We used Figma to create a working prototype showcasing the basic usage of the program, and expanded on our ideas by working on beta projects with Android Studio, Xcode/SwiftUI and Firebase Store and Authentication.

Challenges we ran into

In the beginning of our project, we wanted to use a process that companies utilize to connect with their customers, which is programmable messaging. Companies employ these services to notify their consumer's of sales, and order deliveries, without forcing users to do too much to receive these messages. In our case, this service would allow for only one user, the one who'd send out an alert, to have the app downloaded, while alerts would be sent out to their contact's default messaging app. However, this process deals with a lot of security and provider fees, which with the time constraint, our skillset, and limitations, we wouldn't be able to truly use said tool. So unfortunately we had to scratch that idea. Go to what's next for more details

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a user friendly interface. It's important for the app to be easy to navigate as it would be heavily required to when needed the most. The alert buttons make it clear to users how they should be used, and where to find them.

What's next for SOSMS

Currently, our project is just a demo displaying how our app would look and work, but we'd love to add the messaging function. Firebase Cloud Messaging is our best option for right now, but if this project was able to go beyond our limitations and budget, we can perhaps find a way to use the api tools we discussed above.

Check out our demo video and use our Figma prototype for a visual of our project, links below.

SOURCES NCMEC UCLA CDC

Built With

• android-studio
• figma
• firebase
• swift
• swiftui