How to set up Walkalone for the first time

By using Walkalone you confirm that you  have read  the Walkalone terms and conditions and  that you have  tested the application to satisfy yourself that it performs as intended with your mobile service provider and its network and the mobile service provider/s and  network/s of your emergency contact/s.

1. Log into your You ID Me dashboard and select My Tools. then  click  / tap the Walkalone toggle button to turn it on.

Fig. 1: Look for Walkalone in My Tools in your You ID Me dashboard

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2.   Enter your  own mobile number  in the field and click Start Walkalone.

Fig. 2: Confirm your mobile number

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3.  Switch on the location tool for your  mobile device  if presented with this message. Click the How? button for tips on how to do this; usually in your  device Settings.

Fig. 3: Be sure to enable the location feature of your mobile device

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4.   Switch Walkalone  from Standby to Arm by  using the toggle button.   

Fig. 4: Switch from Standby to Arm to have Walkalone ready to send alerts

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5.   When  'armed'   your number of remaining alerts  (this month) is display.  In this state Walkalone is ready to send alerts to your emergency contact/s.

Fig. 5: Walkalone armed and ready to send alerts

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Testing Walkalone

It is imperative  that you test Walkalone   before using it to satisfy yourself that  it functions correctly with your  service provider and its network and your emergency contacts' service provider/s and their networks.

The wording in Walkalone alerts is  purposefully very alarming so please  always let your emergency contact/s know that you intend to send a test alert before testing.

It's also vital to check with your emergency contact/s that the alert/s was/were received  shortly after being triggered and that the map location matches  your personal  location at the time the alert was sent.

1. Press the 'Send Alert!' button
The following screen will be displayed with a menu below. The menu allows you to:   return to the Walkalone tool, Go to your Dashboard,  View alerts history (see below example) or Logout.

Fig. 6: Success message and menu follows alert being sent

Fig. 7: Example of a historic alert sent to one of your contacts from the Walkalone tool showing the contact's number, the message, your location at the time as a Google Map reference and the time and date.

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Troubleshooting Walkalone

No emergency contacts linked to your profile
Go  to your profile dashboard . Click Update My Profile then go to Section 2 of the form. Click  the checkbox beneath one or more emergency contscts that states:   Receive SMS alert in the event of an emergency?*

Fig. 8: Troubleshooting - Alerts to emergency contacts not selected in main You ID Me profile

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Service Unavailable message
This message indicates that you have no remaining SMS's for the current month. You will need to contact  admin  by opening a trouble ticket.

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One or more emergency contacts not receiveing alerts
Walkalone alerts are instant and should generally take  less than a minute to  be received  on your emergency contacts' mobile device.   

There are almost 900  different mobile number prefixes (07305, 07719 etc.) operating in the UK . These are owned and or managed by many different service providers and mobile networks, each having  different rules, processes and protocols on their servers and network gateways.

Check the status of alerts in Walkalone > Dashboard > History to ensure it reads Success. If alerts are being sent (ie displaying a status of Success) but are not  being received  on your emergency contact's device - at all or in a timely manner - it may be that your emergency contacts' mobile service provider has disallowed SMS  alerts with dynamic links (the reference to your location using Google Maps). 

In this case you could try changing your emergency contact/s in your You ID Me profile. 

Fig. 9: Check for alert status of Success in Walkalone > History if alerts not being received by your emergency contact/s