Someone in your corner.
Say where you are going and when you should be there. If that time passes without you, the people you chose are told. No map, no tracking, nobody watching a dot. A promise with an alarm on it.
Free. 911 first, always. You can only ever start a watch on yourself.
Maya asked for thirty minutes. Nobody had to be awake for any of this.
- Maya started a watchhome by 12:34
- Got into 7XYZ 123silver Corolla · her people can see the plate
- Dueshe is not home
- Overdueher brother and her mother are told
- Still overdueboth are told again
- Escalatedboth are told to call 911
Porchlight does not call anyone. It makes sure the people who would already be looking for her are not the last to know.
A deadline, not a map.
Sharing your location tells people where you are, if they think to look. At 1:47am nobody is looking. A watch works the other way round: you name a time, and if it passes without you, the app goes and finds your people. Nobody has to sit up watching a dot to keep you safe.
Say where, and by when.
Two taps and a time. The sentence you write is the exact sentence your people are sent, so write it the way you would say it. “Walking home from Ivy’s.” · 30 minutes
The plate goes first.
Type it before the door closes and your people have it in seconds, not after something has gone wrong. Porchlight cannot check that car against Uber or Lyft, because no rideshare company will tell an outside app whose car you are in, so it does the one thing it can: makes sure somebody else knows.
One tap and it’s over.
Ending a watch early is the normal ending, and it is the easiest thing on the screen. A safety net you have to fight to switch off is one you stop switching on.
Built for the walk, not the desk.
These are captures of the app running, not drawings of it. It works in any phone’s browser today. Add it to your Home Screen and it opens like an app.
The ordinary nights that carry a little weight.
Nothing here is for emergencies. 911 is for emergencies. Porchlight is for the moments before anything is wrong, when all you want is for somebody to notice if you don't turn up.
Walking home
Late class, closing shift, the last stretch from the bus stop. Set fifteen minutes, arrive, tap once, done. And if you don't, your people know within minutes, not the next morning.
The ride
Type the plate before the door closes and the people you chose have it in seconds. Porchlight cannot verify the car (no rideshare company lets an outside app do that), so it does the one thing that matters: somebody else knows.
The first date
Someone new, a place you don't know well. Your people see what you called the watch and when you said you'd be home. They do not see where you are, because you didn't ask to be followed.
The people you love
A kid at college, a parent who lives alone, a friend who walks home late. You cannot start a watch on them, nobody can, but when they start one and name you, you are the one who finds out.
“Text me when you get home” is a promise everybody makes and nothing keeps. Porchlight is the part that notices.
The other half of the promise.
Someone names you, you accept, and that is the whole job until a deadline passes. Porchlight sends you nothing while a watch runs on time: no feed, no dot, nothing to check. When you do hear from it, the message says what has happened and what to do next.
Call them.
Within a minute of the deadline passing, you are told they have not checked in: what they called the watch, and when they were due. Most watches end here: a phone in a pocket, a bus running slow. You call, they check in or add time, and it is over.
Call again, and go.
Still nothing. The next message asks more: try them again, and head for the place they said they would be. It has been on the watch since the moment they started it.
Call 911.
The last rung. Porchlight never calls the police itself. It puts that decision in front of the people who know them, with the whole record in hand: the name of the watch, the deadline, the plate if one was sent, and what to say to a dispatcher, in order.
What you can open is the watch and its record: what they called it, when they are due, every escalation as it is written. Not their position; they asked to be checked on, not followed. The one time you are sent it is when they press the alarm themselves, because pressing it is asking to be found.
A watch you are named on costs nothing, and asks nothing of you until it matters.
You control who sees what, and when.
Peace of mind without surveillance. These are not policies we ask you to take on trust: most of them are constraints written into the database, where nobody can talk their way around them.
A watch can only be started on you. The function that opens one takes no argument for anybody else, so covert watching is not banned: it is unrepresentable.
A watch never asks your phone where you are. Your people see what you called it and when you are due, not your position. The one exception is the alarm you press yourself: it sends your last position, because pressing it is asking to be found.
You invite them, they accept, and either of you can end it. There is no directory and no lookup, so nobody can find you who you didn't tell.
18 hours is the longest a watch can run before it must be renewed. A permanent watch is surveillance, so it cannot be created.
Every check-in and escalation is written down, and the app is granted no way to change or remove one afterwards: not for you, and not for the people watching.
Porchlight tells the people you named and nobody else. It never contacts police on your behalf.
Porchlight complements 911 and the people already in your life. It never replaces either.
Asked and answered.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Porchlight is free to use: no card, no trial that expires, no paid tier hiding the parts that matter. If that ever changes, it will be announced plainly rather than discovered on a bill.
How is this different from sharing my location?
Location sharing shows people where you are, if they think to look. At 1:47am nobody is looking. A watch inverts it: nobody watches anything, and the alert fires because a deadline passed. Your people are told at exactly the moment there is something to know, and see nothing when there isn't.
What if I'm just running late?
Give yourself more time. On a running watch, one tap adds fifteen, thirty, or sixty minutes to the deadline. If it has already gone overdue, the same tap pushes the deadline out from now and stops the escalation, so anyone who was told simply sees it running again. A safety net that forces a false alarm every time you are slow is one you stop switching on, so this is deliberately the easy path. The one thing it cannot do is run forever: no watch lasts more than 18 hours from when it started, however many times you extend it.
Can somebody put a watch on me without me knowing?
No, and not because we forbid it. There is no way to express it. The function that opens a watch takes no argument for whose watch it is; it can only ever be yours, so there is no setting to leave switched on, no admin screen, and nothing for anyone to talk you into. Someone would have to change the database itself. The people watching are people you named, who then had to accept, and either of you can end it.
What if my phone dies, or I lose signal?
The watch still runs. The deadline lives on our server, not on your phone, and it is checked every minute whether or not your phone is reachable, so a dead battery does not quietly cancel the one thing that was going to raise the alarm. This is the part a location-sharing app cannot do: a map needs your phone alive and reporting, and the moment it goes dark it simply shows your last dot and says nothing. An I’m safe pressed with no connection is kept on the phone and sent when the connection returns. If the deadline passes first, your people are told, and the record says when you pressed.
What if I forget to end one?
Your people get told you are overdue, and you tell them you are fine. That is the system working rather than failing, and it is the trade we chose deliberately: a net that occasionally embarrasses you is worth more than one that stays quiet when it matters. Ending a watch early is one tap and the largest control on the screen. In the installed app your phone nudges you two minutes before the deadline. In a browser it cannot, so set your own alarm for a minute or two before.
Does a watch track where I am?
No. A watch is a deadline, not a map: it never asks your phone for your position, and your people see what you called the watch, when it was due, and the plate if you chose to send one. The one exception is the alarm. Press it and your last position goes out with that alert, once, and only because you pressed it: raising the alarm is asking to be found.
Do the people I name need the app?
No. A browser is enough: the person you name opens the link you sent them, signs in, says yes, allows notifications, and their computer or phone is sent the same alerts an installed app gets. On an iPhone there is one extra step: add Porchlight to the Home Screen first (Share, then Add to Home Screen), because that is where Apple allows web notifications to live.
Who can see my watches?
Only the people you invited, and only after they accepted. There is no public directory and no invite-by-search: you make a link and send it to a person you already talk to, and the link works once. Nobody can find you inside the app who you didn't tell.
What cities does it work in?
Anywhere. A check-in is a promise between you and your people, not a local service, so there is no coverage area. It is built in Kansas City.
Hear what is new.
Porchlight is free, and open to anyone. The list is for news of what has changed, and for telling us what would make it useful to you.
Anything you want us to know?