Bike Buddy
an app to alert for help during bike adventures
June 2020
In 2020 I was doing a lot of biking in the Santa Monica Mountains, where I was often out of cell service and away from people. I made BikeBuddy as a way to alert my family if I didn’t return home by a certain time. The app lets the user set an “emergency” time, and if the user doesn’t return home by that time, the app sends an SMS to the an emergency contact. A backend server sends the SMS, so the user doesn’t need to be in cell service for the alert to be sent. Once the user returns home the alert is automatically cancelled.
I used Google Firebase as a backend server since it has easy integration into Android apps, is free, and can schedule tasks with simple javascript functions. Whenever a user adds a ride on the app, Firebase schedules an SMS alert at the “emergency” time. Once a minute, the server check if an SMS needs to be sent. If the user safely returns home, the app cancels the alert in the database. Also, the app updates the “last known position” location in the database which also gets sent in the emergency SMS.
Luckily I’ve never had a real emergency, but it’s nice to have the safety net in place.
