Introducing Safety Timers: A New Kind of Check-In
CheckIn More now has safety timers — set a countdown for a run, a date night, or any solo activity, and your contacts are automatically notified if you don't check back in.
We're adding something a little different to CheckIn More today: safety timers.
Daily check-ins are about routine — the quiet, ongoing reassurance that things are fine. Safety timers are about the moments that aren't quite routine. The solo run at dusk. The first date. The drive home in bad weather. The moments where you want someone to know where you're going, and to hear from you when you're back.
Here's how they work.
Set a Timer, Then Just Go
Creating a safety timer is simple. Open the app, set a duration and an optional reason — "45 minute run," "hiking trail, back by 3pm" — and you're done. If you don't check back in when the timer expires, CheckIn More waits five minutes, then notifies your contacts.
That grace period matters. Life doesn't run on the minute. The timer ending doesn't mean something is wrong — it means the clock is up, and you haven't said you're home yet. Five minutes of buffer keeps things from feeling like a hair trigger.
Text to Start a Timer — No App Required
You can also create safety timers entirely over SMS, without opening the app at all. Just text CheckIn More directly:
- "45m going on run"
- "date night, back by 10:30pm"
- "heading to the trailhead, 2 hours"
CheckIn More understands natural language — a duration, a time, or a mix. And when you're back, texting something like "just got home" or "I'm back" cancels the timer.
You can also adjust mid-timer if plans change:
- "need 30 more minutes"
- "running late, back by midnight"
- "cancel"
No fumbling with the app when your hands are full. Just text.
(SMS management of timers is available on Plus and Premium plans — see below.)
What Happens If You Don't Check In
If your timer expires and you don't check in within the five-minute grace period, CheckIn More notifies your contacts the same way it does for a missed daily check-in — through whichever notification channels your plan includes:
- Free — Email to 1 contact
- Plus — Email + SMS to unlimited contacts
- Premium — Email + SMS + AI phone call to unlimited contacts
The phone call is worth highlighting here. If someone you care about hasn't checked back in from a solo run and isn't answering texts, a phone call is harder to sleep through than a notification.
How Safety Timers Fit Into Each Plan
| Free | Plus | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety timers per day | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Contacts notified | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Create timers in-app | |||
| Create & manage timers via SMS | |||
| Email notification on missed timer | |||
| SMS notification on missed timer | |||
| Phone call on missed timer |
Free users get one safety timer per day — which, for most people in most situations, is exactly what they need. Heading somewhere and want a simple safety net? Set the timer, go, check back in. Done.
One Feature, One System
Safety timers aren't a separate product bolted onto CheckIn More — they run on the same contact notification system as daily check-ins. The contacts you've already set up, the notification preferences you've already configured, the escalation behavior you're already familiar with: all of it applies here too.
That means if you've set up anomalous missed check-in detection on your daily schedule, your contacts are already primed to pay attention when something unusual happens. A safety timer missed at 11pm on a Tuesday reads differently than a check-in skipped at 9am — and the people you've chosen as contacts will know the difference.
Safety timers are available today on all plans. If you haven't downloaded CheckIn More yet, this is a good time.
As always, feedback reaches us directly.
