Stories & guidance
A raised voice can make things worse. A visible phone call can provoke. For many people — someone walking home, a nurse on a house call, a woman who hears a stranger at the door — the safest thing is to reach for help without making a sound. These are the moments SilentCall was built for.
Marta is a community nurse. Most days she visits eight homes alone — often people she's never met, sometimes down long rural lanes with no one else around. She loves the work. She just doesn't love the last visit of the day, in winter, when it's already dark.
One evening a patient's adult son had been drinking, and the mood in the room turned. Marta didn't argue and didn't reach for her phone in front of him. On her way to the door, she pressed the SilentCall shortcut in her pocket. It connected, recorded, and — because she didn't cancel — sent the audio to her team lead, who called her two minutes later on a pretext and stayed on the line until she was back in her car. Nothing 'happened.' That is exactly the point.
Illustrative scenarios — the situations SilentCall is built for. Short films coming soon.
You're walking home late. Someone on the empty street makes you uneasy. Nothing has happened — it may be nothing — but your instincts are awake. You press the button. If they turn off, you cancel. If they don't, someone already knows where you are and what you're hearing.
You're staying in a rented flat, far from home, when you hear a key turn in the lock. Your heart races. It could be the owner. It could be anyone. You don't have to decide who it is before you're safe — you press once, and if it's nothing, you cancel.
Your daughter is old enough to go to the club, and old enough to resent being tracked. You don't want her location. You want to know she's safe. The SilentCall icon on her home screen isn't surveillance — it's a door she can open if she ever needs to.
An estate agent meets a new 'buyer' at an empty property, alone, the address shared with no one. It's a normal part of the job — and one of its quiet risks. Before she unlocks the door, the shortcut is ready. If the viewing feels wrong, help is one press away.
If you are in immediate danger, contact your emergency services first. Here's how to reach them when you can't talk, wherever you are.
Call 999. If you can't speak, listen and press 55 when prompted (or cough or tap the handset). On a mobile, pressing 55 tells the operator it's a genuine emergency and transfers you to the police. Important: staying silent alone is not enough on a mobile — you must press 55.
Official guidance is 'call if you can, text if you can't.' Where Text-to-911 is available, you can text your location and emergency to 911. It isn't available everywhere; if your text can't be delivered, you'll get a bounce-back message telling you to call.
112 is the free emergency number across the whole EU. Many countries also offer SMS or app-based access to 112 for people who can't make a voice call — check what's available where you live.
SilentCall doesn't replace 999, 911 or 112. It's for the in-between moments — when you're not yet sure it's an emergency, or when the people you most want to reach are the ones who love you. One silent call records the situation and alerts up to three people you trust.
Not everyone wants the first call to go to an official line. You might simply prefer that the person who hears you is someone who knows you — a sister, a friend, a parent. SilentCall sends your recording to the people you choose, so help comes from someone you trust, on your own terms.
In a life-threatening emergency, please still contact emergency services if you can safely do so.
Set it up once. Keep the confidence of knowing someone will always know.
ActivateOfficial guidance:
UK – Silent 999 & “press 55” · US – Text-to-911 (FCC) · EU – 112