Daak: Keeping you safe

In recent times, safety has become a major concern. Whether one is confronted with a case of harassment, extortion or physical assault, sometimes it's impossible to call or text someone in these perilous situations. With that in mind, Rupam IT Ltd, a Bangladeshi firm, has come up with an app called "Daak". 

The app is fairly simplistic. Barely 5 MB in size, it asks for a sign-up when opened for the first time. The hassle can be avoided as the app supports Facebook and Google+ integration. Once the app is launched, the user can set up some emergency contacts. It also houses helplines for each police station in Dhaka. The user is normally kept in the "safe" state while "danger" or "alert" buttons can be pressed to notify close ones.

Daak can be used both with or without internet. When offline, the app can notify trusted people via SMS or set up a "fake call", which will undoubtedly be helpful in some cases. When online, emergency contacts receive the real-time map location of the user. While the app looks like it has a simple set of features, it is not exactly user-friendly. It is difficult to figure out how the hotkey works. For example, my phone lacks a physical home button and perhaps that is why I could not get the hotkey to function. It also lacks a section where the features could be explained in Bengali or English. Still it is a praiseworthy attempt from a Bangladeshi firm and hopefully future updates will work on the shortcomings.