Jade Debattista
Have there ever been times when you were supposed to be having fun on a night out, but instead felt unsafe?
Well, we recently discovered the award-winning and female-founded app Where You At (WYA) promoting nightlife safety.
Tamzin Lent’s project was inspired by her personal experiences with sexual harassment and assault in clubs.
Since nightlife venues continue to be an unsafe blind spot for young people, WYA was developed to enable “groups of friends to stay in touch with each other inside venues even when there is no signal.”
How does Where You At work?
The WYA app uses Bluetooth beacons spaced eight meters apart to build a mesh network across a venue. Then, it is combined with micro-location technology, allowing users to locate their friends quickly and easily in crowded areas, even in places without network connection.
The core feature of WYA is its precise indoor mapping tool. This allows users to designate a ‘friend circle’ for the evening and alert one another in case of an emergency.
Additionally, by selecting ‘Get Home’, they can alert their circles when they want to leave. The safety app will then connect the user directly to Uber or Bolt and notify their friends when they arrive home safely.
Incentives for club owners
Along with the mapping, the app also offers accurate venue analytics, enabling the venue’s management to pinpoint the busiest areas and peak hours, as well as the exact number of visitors.
Tamzin Lent, Co-Founder and CEO, stated:
“Our vision is for every single club to need the Where You At accreditation to make sure that their customers feel safe and secure, and that clubs will essentially have a degree of FOMO about not being a part of the app because it means that their potential customers might be less likely to visit the club.”
Mission of Where You At
The purpose of Where You At is to provide a haven for people when they in at their most vulnerable state. Apart from that, it strives to boost the sense of security and safety within the clubbing scene. WYA’s mission is to “make nights out safer for everyone.”
If you frequently feel uneasy during a night out, you can download the app which is available for both Android and Apple devices and give it a try for yourself.
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