Where You At app aims for safer nights out by making safety social

In dark and crowded nightclubs, it's all too easy for people to lose the friends they came in with. And phone signals aren't guaranteed. Which is where Where You At comes in: an app that helps people keep track of each other, even without a signal.

In the app, users add people to a friendship circle to create their own private security network. As circle members move through a venue, their location is updated in the app, allowing their friends to find them. When someone wants to leave, they can alert their circle and book a cab to get home safely together, as well as notify others once they've arrived. If they feel unsafe, users can hit an SOS button to immediately alert their circle to their location.

Users' phones connect by way of Bluetooth mesh networking, which allows for broadcasting micro-locations, but also means venues need to get involved. WYA creates a map of their floorplan, uploads it to the app and installs small Bluetooth beacons around the site.

Oxford university student Tamzin Lent and graduate Olivia Leigh started working on WYA in 2020. The app's backend development has been completed and it's being trialed in venues, ahead of a spring 2022 launch.