App manual and fixes

ERGSS Outdoors opens straight to your own map: topo, your location, pins, saved spots, wind, tracks and the compass guide. Use it on your own for hiking or scouting.

The bar at the top says Join or start a hunt. Tap it any time to join a group or start your own.

On your own map, 📞 Call 911 replaces group SOS, because there is no group to alert yet.

1. Point your phone camera at the group leader's QR code, or open the invite link they sent you.
2. Fill in your name, phone and an emergency contact the first time.
3. You land on the hunt's map with everyone in the group.

If the group isn't covered by the leader's plan, you'll be asked for a $9.99 Day Pass. Payment opens in your phone's browser, then Back to ERGSS Outdoors returns you to the map. A Day Pass bought within 7 days counts toward a yearly plan.

1. Tap Join or start a hunt › Start a new hunt, give it a name (Deer Camp, Opening Day) and tap Start.
2. The hunt's QR code appears. Show it to your hunters, or tap Share to text the link.
3. Later, tap 📷 at the top of the map any time to show the QR again.

Not subscribed? Subscribe $34.99 a year or $5.99 a month right there; payment opens in your browser and brings you back. ERGSS staff: tap ERGSS staff? Start hunts free, enter your @ergss.com email and type the 6-digit code we email you.

Tap the hunt name at the top. Every hunt you've joined is listed; tap one to switch. 🥾 Just me takes you back to your own map.

Press and hold anywhere on the map until the phone buzzes, or tap 📌. Drag the pin to the exact spot, then tap it for options:

• 🧭 Guide me here: compass guidance on the topo map.
• Everyone go here: sends the spot to the whole group as a rally point.
• ⭐ Save spot: name it, pick an icon (truck, stand, camp, water) and keep it.
• Drive or walk with Google Maps, for getting to the trailhead.

Tap 🎯 on the map (or Layers → Mark where your animal is). The camera opens with a crosshair. Put the crosshair on where the animal stood or went down, hold still and tap Mark this spot. Enter the distance from your rangefinder, or tap 50, 100, 150, 200 or 300 for a quick estimate, and choose Where it stood or Where it went down. Tap Drop the pin there: the pin lands on that spot, with a dashed line back to where you stood and a circle showing about how far around the pin to search. Save it, then tap 🧭 Guide me here.

• Hold the phone away from your rifle, scope or a metal stand. Metal throws off a phone compass. If the direction box turns yellow or red, step away and wave the phone in a slow figure 8.
• Accuracy: within about 10 to 15 yards at 200 yards with a rangefinder distance and a steady compass. A guessed distance adds its own error.
• No compass on your phone? Tap Type the direction instead and enter the bearing from a hand compass.
• The app works out the direction to true north for you. It doesn't calculate bullet drop.

Saved spots stay on the map at their exact location and move with the map. Tap ⭐ on the right to see the list with distance and coordinates; tap one and the map goes straight there. The switch at the bottom hides or shows them on the map. You can keep up to 60.

From any pin, saved spot or Get back place, tap 🧭 Guide me. A bar at the top shows an arrow that points to the spot as you turn, the distance (yards close in, miles farther out), the bearing in degrees for a real compass, and your GPS accuracy. A dashed orange line shows the straight path; use the topo to choose your route. The phone buzzes within about 25 yards. Tap End to stop.

The map follows you as you walk or drive. Drag the map with one finger to look around; following stops. Tap ◎ to follow again (a blue ring shows it's on). Pinch-zooming keeps following on.

Your walk records automatically from the moment you open the map and draws as a blue line, even with the phone in your pocket. To retrace it, tap 👣 › 🔙 Follow my track back; the arrow leads you point by point along your own trail.

• ⏹ End hunt · stop recording stops the track until your next hunt.
• 💾 Save a route by name (Truck to ridge stand) and follow it any day, ▶ to the end or ◀ back to the start. Saved routes show as a purple dotted line.
• The switch Record my track automatically turns automatic recording off or on.

Tap 🗺️ for the map type and layers:

• 🏔️ Topo and Satellite.
• 🌲 Public land: federal and state public land nationwide.
• 🦌 Hunting units: the state's deer/game units where you are (17 states and growing).
• 🟪 Walk-in hunting access: private land the state opens to public hunting (Michigan Hunter Access, North Dakota PLOTS, Colorado Walk-In, Montana Block Management).
• 🟧 Commercial Forest and 🟩 State land (Michigan).

Tap a shape for its name, acres and access rules. Zoom in if a layer doesn't appear.

The chip at the top left shows wind direction (the arrow points the way it's blowing), speed and gusts from the nearest National Weather Service station. Tap it for the full hunting forecast: hourly wind, pressure trend, sunrise and sunset, legal shooting light and moon phase.

Turn on 👃 Scent cone in the 🗺️ menu to shade where your scent is drifting from where you stand.

In the 🗺️ menu, 📘 Hunting regulations finds your state and opens the state wildlife agency's hunting page, or this year's official digest. Pick any other state for out-of-state trips.

Tap 📏, then tap points on the map. Two points give a distance; three or more give the area in acres. Undo, Clear and Done are at the bottom.

If the phone senses a hard fall followed by no movement, it sounds a loud countdown with I'm OK. If nobody taps it, everyone in your hunting group gets an alert with your location. On your own map there is no group to alert, so join or start a hunt for this protection.

In a hunt, 🆘 SOS alerts everyone in the group with your location and the details 911 asks for. 📍 Meet here sends everyone to a spot. In an emergency always call 911 first; ERGSS does not monitor hunting groups.

Tap the banner One more phone setting keeps protection on and follow the steps: Battery › Unrestricted, and add ERGSS Outdoors to Never sleeping apps. Without it, the phone can put the app to sleep, which leaves gaps in your track, your group's view of you and fall detection.

• ERGSS Family: one private map for the whole household, arrive and leave alerts, SOS and crash alerts, Meet here, I'm safe and push to talk. Sign up at ergss.net/family.
• ERGSS Family 24/7: everything in Family, plus ERGSS watch officers who answer every SOS and crash day and night. Emergency Ready is included.
• Family Care: a medical alert on the phone Mom, Dad or Grandma already carries: one-tap SOS, fall detection, a daily "I'm OK" check-in, medicine reminders, a medical ID paramedics can scan and health reports for the doctor. Their location is shared only during an SOS, a fall or a crash. $14.99 a month on its own at ergss.net/family/care, or $11.99 a month per person added to a Family plan.

1. Go to ergss.net/family and tap Join now (or Choose Family / Choose Family 24/7).
2. Your plan: pick Family or ERGSS Family 24/7, and Monthly or Yearly (one month free). Tap Continue.
3. Your account: family name (for example "Powers Family"), your name, mobile phone, email, a username (letters, numbers, dots or dashes, no spaces) and a password of at least 8 characters. You become the family's administrator. You can always sign in with your email instead of the username.
4. Your family: tap + Add a family member for each person: name, mobile number and relationship (child, spouse or partner, parent, grandparent, sibling, other). Tick 🩺 Add Family Care for anyone who needs medicine reminders, a daily check-in, fall detection and a medical ID; tick Add Family Care for me if it's for you. You can also add people later.
5. Review and pay: check the plan and the people, tick the box to accept the terms, and tap Continue to payment. Payment is on Stripe's secure page (card, Apple Pay or Google Pay); ERGSS never sees your card number.

When it's done, everyone you added gets a personal invitation by text and email. Next: put the app on each phone.

Android:

1. Open the invite link from your text or email (or go to ergss.net/family/app on the phone).
2. Tap Download ERGSS Family, open the downloaded file and tap Install. If the phone asks, allow your browser to install apps; the app comes straight from ERGSS, not the Play Store.
3. Open the app. Tap Open in ERGSS Family on your invite page, scan the family's QR code, or paste your invite link and tap 💛 Join my family.
4. Allow location (While using the app, then Allow all the time), notifications and physical activity, and allow the app to run in the background when asked. Without these, the family can't see you with the app closed and SOS, crash and fall alerts can't work.
5. Agree to the Your safety and privacy screen and add your emergency contact. You only do this once.

iPhone: the iPhone app is coming. For now, open your invite link in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. It works like an app while it's open; your location updates only while it's on the screen.

Parents: on your own phone, sign in at ergss.net with your family login and tap Put ERGSS Family on my phone, or use your own invite.

• From the app: on the family list tap ＋ Invite family. Show the QR code to the person (they point their camera at it) or share the invite link by text.
• From your computer: sign in, open the Command Center › Family & Family Care page for your household. Each person has their own QR code and link with Copy link, Text link and Email link. A personal link signs the app in as that person, with no password, so send it only to them.
• Someone got a new phone or reinstalled the app? Use their personal link again. Don't send them the family invite, or they'll be added a second time.
• Link stopped working? On the household page, a person whose link was retired shows 🔑 Restore and make a new link. Tap it and send the new link.
• Remove someone (an old duplicate, someone who left): tap Remove under their name on the household page.

1. Go to ergss.net/family/care. (Already on a Family plan? Sign in and tap Add Family Care next to their name instead, $11.99 a month.)
2. Who it's for: their name, who they are to you (mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, spouse, other), their date of birth and their cell phone.
3. You (the caregiver): your name, who you are to them, your cell phone and email, a username and a password.
4. Tick the box confirming you have their permission, and tap Continue to payment · $14.99/month.
5. Fill in their medical ID: allergies, conditions, medicines and their doctor. Paramedics see it when they scan the code on the lock screen. You can do it now or after their next doctor visit.
6. We text and email their invite. If it didn't arrive, open the family screen and tap 📨 Resend invite on their setup card. The card shows each step they finish.
7. Install ERGSS Family on your phone too, so the alerts reach you. Your own location is never shared on a Family Care plan.

Family Care accounts start in simple mode, with fall detection on and a daily check-in by 10 AM. Step-by-step pictures, and a large-print page to leave with them: ergss.net/family/care/setup.

1. Install the app from the link in her invite (see Install the app on a phone).
2. Open the invite: tap the link in the text or email that says she was added on ERGSS Family. The app opens in her family.
3. Allow location and notifications. Say yes to both. On Android choose Allow all the time for location. Her location is shared only during an SOS, a fall or a crash, never all day.
4. Her screen shows Finish setting up · step 1 of 6. Tap through each step: Turn on fall detection, Get my lock-screen picture (the medical ID code; save it and set it as the lock-screen wallpaper, then tap I've done this), and the battery setting. Stuck on a step? Show me with pictures, Remind me tomorrow, or call ERGSS from the card.
5. Try SOS: tap the red 🆘 SOS, then Cancel before the 5-second countdown ends.
6. Tap ✅ I'm OK once to finish. From now on, one tap each morning lets the family know she's fine.

Large-print instructions to print for her: ergss.net/family/care/setup › 🖨 Print part B.

What she sees: "Hi Rose 👋" and big buttons only: ✅ I'm OK, 💬 Message my family, 📞 Call each family member who has a phone number, ⏱ Check on me, 🩺 Log how I feel (with Family Care), 💊 I took my … for each medicine reminder, and 🆘 SOS with 5 seconds to cancel.

Turn it on from your phone (parents and caregivers):

1. On the map, tap her picture in the family list.
2. Tap ⚙️ Settings on her card.
3. Tick Simple mode, and while you're there set her daily check-in time, medicine reminders and fall detection.
4. Tap Save. Her phone switches the next time the app refreshes.

On her phone: Show the full app at the bottom opens the regular app. To go back, tap her own picture, ⚙️ Settings, and tick Simple mode.

1. Tap Check in at the bottom.
2. Tap ✅ I'm OK to let everyone know you're fine, or 🙋 I need help to alert the family right away.
3. If you like, tap Add where you are or a note first.

You can also tap 📍 Check in on the map.

1. Tap Check in at the bottom.
2. Tap ✅ Check in · I'm OK. This resets your next check-in time.
3. Not an emergency but you need help (lost, sick, feel unsafe)? Tap 🙋 Request assistance. It alerts the watch officer and your supervisor.
4. In an emergency, tap 🆘 SOS.

1. Tap the 🩺 button on the map, or Log a symptom on the Check in screen.
2. Tap the symptom. It's saved right away with the time.
3. If you like, tap Mild, Medium or Bad and add a note. Or just tap Done.

Blood pressure and blood sugar ask for the reading. Chest pain and other serious symptoms show the 911 button straight away. Symptoms go into the health report for the doctor.

Don't see the 🩺 button? Turn on Symptom tracker in My settings.

1. Tap Messages. Pick Everyone or one person (on a trip, the watch officer).
2. Type a message or tap a quick reply like On my way home or Running late, then Send.
3. Voice: hold 🎙 Hold to talk, speak, and let go to send. Or tap once to start and again to send.
4. Urgent: tick Urgent before sending. It sounds an alarm on their phones until they read it. Save it for real emergencies.

1. Tap the person's photo on the map to open their card.
2. Tap 🙋 Ask (name) if they're OK, then choose:
   • Send the request: they're asked to tap I'm OK or Need help, and you're told the moment they answer.
   • Send with alarm: the same, but it rings on their phone even on silent until they open it.
   • Just ring their phone: rings even on silent and asks them to check in. Handy for a phone lost in the house.

On the map, tap 🙋 Is everyone safe?. Everyone's phone rings until they answer, and you see each answer as it comes in.

Tap the person's photo, then 📍 Locate. It asks their phone for a fresh position. If the phone is off or dead, the card shows where it was last and when.

1. Open your own card and tap ⏱ Check on me.
2. Pick what you're doing (walking home, driving, out with friends, on a date, running or hiking). Each has a sensible time you can change.
3. Tap ✅ I'm safe when you get there, or +15 min if you need longer.

If you don't tap I'm safe in time, your phone asks first. If you still don't answer, your family is told where you are.

1. On the map, tap the 🗺️ button, then 📍 Add a geofence. Everyone in the family can add their own.
2. Tap the map where it goes, for example home, school, work or Grandma's.
3. Give it a name and pick a size, from 100 feet to 5 miles around the point.
4. Choose the type:
   • ✅ Safe zone: logs arrivals and departures.
   • ⛔ Area to avoid: alerts when someone goes in.
5. Choose when you're told: someone arrives or leaves, goes in, leaves, or don't alert, just log it. Tick the alarm option if it should ring.
6. Tap Save geofence.

To remove one, tap its circle on the map, then Delete geofence. You can delete the ones you made; parents and caregivers can delete any. A family can have up to 40.

For a time-based check instead ("at school by 8:15", "left practice by 6"), use Place alerts.

Open the person's card and tap 📍 Place alerts. Pick a place and a time to be told if they aren't there by that time or haven't left by it. For example: at school by 8:15, or left practice by 6.

Open the person's card and tap a drive in the list. You see the route on a map, with any hard braking or speeding marked along it. Tap ‹ All drives to return to the list.

On Get back, tap 🚨 Everyone report here, then 📍 Meet at my location or 🗺️ Pick a spot on the map. Choose 🚨 Ring everyone to sound an alarm with directions on every phone, or 📍 Meet here (no alarm) for a quiet heads-up. You see who has arrived.

Open the person's card and tap 📍 Send a place. Search for an address or pick a spot on the map, then 📤 Send with directions. They get it in Messages with a button that opens navigation. On a trip you can also 📌 Pin for all travelers so it shows on everyone's map.

• 🧭 Directions: open the person's card (or a saved place) and tap Directions, then pick the maps app you use. Turn-by-turn directions open in it. During an SOS, the alert has the same button so you can go straight to them.
• 🚕 Get a ride: on your own card, Uber or Lyft opens with your pickup set to where you are. You confirm and pay in that app.
• Compass: on a saved place, tap Turn on compass for an arrow and distance pointing to it.

Open their card and tap ⏰ Alarm. Their phone rings loudly, even on silent or Do Not Disturb, until they turn it off or you tap ⏹ Turn off alarm.

Tap someone's picture, then 🕒 Their day (on your own card, 🕒 My day). The last 7 days open as cards: each place they stayed, with how long, and each drive 🚙 or walk 🚶 with times, miles, top speed or steps and a little drawing of the route. Where they are now shows 🟢 Happening now. Tap a trip to see its route on the map; drives also show hard braking, fast starts and anything over 80 mph.

1. Tap Get back at the bottom.
2. Tap 📍 Add a place. Give it a name and an address (copy it from your booking so a driver can read it), or tap I'm here now · pin this spot.
3. Tick Share with everyone on my trip if others should see it, then Save place.
4. Tap any saved place for walking or driving directions.

On Get back, tap 🚨 Everyone report here and pick the place. Every phone rings and opens directions to it (on Android by itself, on iPhone with one tap on the alert). You see where each person is and how long until they arrive, and you're told right away if someone isn't moving or answering. When everyone is there, all phones show Family reunited.

On the map, tap 🛡️ Be ready. Set a meeting spot near home and a rally point out of the area, and tick off your emergency kit. The app reminds you when it's time to check the kit again.

When there's a warning, tap 🏠 Open shelters near you on it to see shelters that are open now.

Tap the 🗺️ button on the map and choose 🌧️ Weather radar or ⚠️ Threats. 🔎 Search and directions is in the same menu.

Open 🛡️ Be ready:

• ＋ Set a rally point near home, and ＋ Out-of-area point if the neighborhood itself has to be left.
• Add the out-of-area contact everyone calls or texts. Texts get through when calls can't.
• 📋 Written plan & contact shows the plan. It's saved on each phone, so it opens with no signal.
• 🗺️ Route with no signal shows the drive to the rally point, saved on the phone.
• Tick off the emergency kit. The app reminds you when it's time to check it again.

On a warning card, tap 🏠 Open shelters near you for shelters that are open now. On Get back, the nearest hospitals, police and safe places are listed with directions. Tap Tag where I am now to save a safe café, pharmacy or meeting point with one tap.

On the map, tap the 🗺️ button and, under Outdoors:

• 🏔️ Topo map switches to the USGS topographic map, with contour lines, trails, two-tracks and forest roads.
• 🌲 Public land shades state forest, state game areas, national forest, wildlife refuges and other public land. Shading shows whether it's open to the public, restricted (permit or seasonal) or closed.

Tap the same item again to turn it off. Watch officers find both under 🗂️ Layers on the Operations map.

1. Press and hold anywhere on the map for about half a second, or tap 📌 on the right. A pin drops there. Drag it with your finger to the exact spot, or move the map under it.
2. Tap the pin for its options:
   • 🧭 Walk here with a compass on the map: an arrow that turns with your phone, the distance left and a straight line to the spot, right on the map. The phone buzzes when you arrive.
   • 🚗 Drive or 🚶 Walk opens Google Maps directions; Apple Maps is there too.
   • 📣 Everyone go here sends it to the family (or your trip) as a meeting spot with directions, and you see who has arrived.
3. Save it: under ⭐ Save as a waypoint, give it a name (Grandma's, practice field, where we parked), pick an icon, add a note if you like.
4. Keep it or share it: leave Share with the family unticked to keep it just for you, or tick it so it shows on everyone's map and in their Get back tab, marked as shared by you. (On a trip the box reads Share with everyone on my trip.)
5. Tap ⭐ Save spot. Remove pin clears it without saving.

The pin also shows its coordinates, US National Grid reference and how far it is from you.

Tap ⭐ on the map, or tap your own picture: your card lists ⭐ My saved spots, newest first, with how far away each one is. Tap 🧭 Go to start the walking compass, or ⋯ for Drive, Walk, Apple Maps, Everyone go here, rename, change the icon or delete.

Saved spots stay on your map with their icon and name. They're also listed under Get back, which has 🧭 Walk with a compass on the map and a compass that keeps working with no signal.

1. Tap your own picture, then 🔗 Share.
2. Pick how long: 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, 24 hours, or until you stop it.
3. Tap 📤 Start sharing. The link is copied (or your phone's share menu opens); paste it in a text or email.
4. Whoever opens it sees a map in their web browser with your first name, phone battery and how recently your location updated. It refreshes every 15 seconds. They don't need the app or an account.

To stop early, tap 🔗 Share again and tap Stop next to the link. A stopped or expired link shows "This shared location has ended". You can have up to 5 links at once.

Tap the 🗺️ button, then 📞 My location for 911 (also 📞 For 911 on your own card). It shows your latitude and longitude, the same position in degrees, minutes and seconds, the US National Grid reference search and rescue teams use, and the time of the fix. Tap Call 911 and read it, Text 911 where text-to-911 works, or Copy it.

When someone sends SOS or asks for help, their card shows a red bar: 🧭 Go to (name) opens turn-by-turn directions to where their phone is, and 📞 Info for 911 shows their coordinates, grid reference and time of the fix, ready to read to the dispatcher. Call 911 first if you can.

1. On the map, tap ＋ Invite family (or ➕ Add a family member).
2. Show them the QR code to scan with their phone's camera, or send the invite by text or email.
3. They install ERGSS Family and tap the link. If they lose it, open their card and tap Resend invite.

Setting up a parent's phone? The step-by-step guide with pictures is at ergss.net/family/care/setup.

On the map, tap 🔔 Alerts and choose what you're told about and how. Parents, guardians and caregivers can also change the alerts for others in the family.

Open My settings (a parent or caregiver can open someone else's Settings from their card). Under Medicine reminders, tap ＋ Add a medicine and enter the name and time. The phone reminds at each time, and the family is told if a dose is missed.

Open the person's card and tap 📋 Health report. It covers the last 30 or 90 days of symptoms, readings, medicines and check-ins. You can print it, save it, or take it to the doctor.

Tap My info. Under My map icon, tap 📷 Add a photo or pick an icon. Tap English or Español to switch the language.

Tap My info and look under If you press SOS. With emergency audio on, pressing SOS records 30-second clips and sends them to the ERGSS watch officer for up to 30 minutes, so we can hear what's happening if you can't speak. The phone shows that it's recording, and clips are kept 30 days. Nothing is recorded unless you press SOS. Emergency video works the same way.

• Pause location sharing: the family or the watch officer is told that sharing is paused. SOS still works.
• Lock settings with a PIN: pausing, turning off crash detection and unlinking then need the PIN. Good for a child's or a parent's phone.
• Unlink this phone: stops sharing. You need the invite or trip link to set it up again.

1. Tap 🚗 Trips on your card (or ＋ Plan a trip).
2. Add where and when, and who's going.
3. ＋ Add a flight to track it. The family sees delays and landings.
4. ✨ Estimate this trip fills in flights, hotel, food and a rental car from distance and government per diem rates. Change any number.
5. Trip check-ins remind travelers to check in while they're away. Tap End trip when everyone is home.

Open the person's card and tap 🩺 Add Family Care. It's added to your family plan for that person and can be canceled any time. Family Care adds medicine reminders with missed-dose alerts, the daily I'm OK check-in, fall detection, the symptom tracker, the first-responder medical ID, and 30- and 90-day health reports.

1. Open the person's card and tap 🩺 Medical ID. Fill in allergies, medicines, conditions, code status and who to call.
2. Tap Turn on first-responder code. This makes the QR code that responders scan.
3. Put it where it'll be found: Get my lock-screen picture for the phone, 🪪 Card for a wallet card, and the fridge sticker for home.

When the code is scanned, the family is told.

• 🚪 Leave the family: on your own card. Your sharing stops.
• 🗑 Remove from family: on someone else's card (family admin).
• ⚙️ Plan & account shows your plan, renewal date and receipts (💳 Billing and receipts). Canceling stops sharing and alerts for everyone; records are kept for 90 days in case you come back.

Switch the whole app to Spanish under My info › Español. On a message or a warning, Speak it reads it out loud, and More in Google Translate opens other languages.

The app asks once so each person agrees to location and safety messages. Tap Review now to go through it, Remind me tomorrow, or Stop asking me.

Tap My info. 📋 My assignment shows your trip, and Pre-trip brief opens the brief. Confirm you've read it when asked.

Tap Messages. Use a quick reply (Arrived on site, Departing site, Running late, All good) or type your own. Under 📍 Meeting point, tap Show on map, Drive or Walk.

Tap Get back, then 👤 Someone on my trip for directions to them. On the map, people traveling with you show with their photo or icon.

iPhone: tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Android: tap the browser's ⋮ menu, then Add to Home screen. Installing the app from the App Store or Play Store is better, because it adds crash detection and the lock-screen SOS.

On Android the lock-screen SOS is a 🆘 SOS button on the "Protection on" notification. Many phones, Samsung included, hide notification details on the lock screen until you change one setting.

1. Open Settings › Lock screen › Notifications. Turn it on and choose Details (not "Icons only"). On some phones this is Settings › Notifications › Lock screen notifications › Show all content.
2. Make sure ERGSS is allowed: Settings › Apps › ERGSS › Notifications, then turn on Lock screen, and turn on the Protection status and lock-screen SOS category.
3. Lock the phone. Find the Protection on card and pull it down with one finger. The 🆘 SOS button appears under it.

Two other ways to reach SOS without unlocking (Android):

• Quick Settings tile: swipe down twice from the top, tap the pencil, and drag the SOS tile into your tiles.
• Lock-screen shortcut (app 1.27 and newer): Settings › Lock screen › Shortcuts, then pick SOS. It opens a 10-second countdown you can cancel, so a pocket bump won't send an alarm.

1. Tap the red SOS button. A countdown starts (5 seconds in the app, 10 from the lock screen) so you can tap Cancel if it was an accident.
2. When the countdown ends, the alert goes out with your location, and your location is shared every few seconds until the alert is closed.
3. You see a message when someone has acknowledged it.

No signal? The SOS waits on the phone and goes out the moment the phone reconnects.

Crash detection watches the motion sensor only while you're moving faster than about 15 mph. If it senses a crash, the phone rings loudly and asks whether you're OK. If nobody answers within 30 seconds, an alert goes out with your location.

• Try it safely from the ⋮ menu: Practice the crash check. Nothing is sent.
• Android: allow Physical activity when asked. iPhone: allow Motion & Fitness.
• Turn it on or off from the ⋮ menu.

Turn it on in My settings. If the phone senses a hard fall and then no movement, it asks whether you're OK. If you don't answer within 30 seconds, the family is alerted with your location.

Phones in a pocket or bag work best. A phone set down on a table can't sense a fall.

Start here: the app's ⋮ menu › Check my protection (app 1.28 and newer). It lists everything that can stop the app with the phone in your pocket. Tap Fix next item until it says Ready to travel, then tap Send a test.

ERGSS Family keeps your location private day to day. With "share only in an emergency" on, the map shows you only during an SOS, a fall or a crash. That is working as intended.

• Battery died: the phone reported almost no battery, then went quiet. You'll see where it was last.
• Phone off: the phone was turned off.
• Quiet: no update for a while. Usually no signal, a battery setting stopping the app, or the app was closed. See Location isn't updating.

Parents can tap Locate on that person's card to ask the phone for a fresh position.

• Each person shows as their photo, or their icon or initials. Tap a person to open their card.
• People off the visible map appear as small bubbles on the edge. Tap one to jump to them.
• Buttons fade while you move the map. Tap anywhere to bring them back.
• A photo with a colored flashing ring means a weather or safety warning was sent for where that person is. Red is the most serious.
• On a person's card, tap a drive in the list to see the route and any hard braking or speeding.

Warnings come from the National Weather Service, USGS (earthquakes), NASA (wildfires), GDACS (worldwide disasters) and the U.S. State Department.

Open My info › My map icon › Add a photo, or tap 📷 on your own card. To change it later, use Change or Remove.

ERGSS Family: your family sees it, and parents can set photos for children. ERGSS Field: only people on the same trip who share their location see it.

Only a parent, guardian, caregiver or family admin can change another person's alerts. Ask the family admin to set your role under the family members list. If you are the admin and still can't, close the app all the way and open it again.

Set a Check in by time in My settings. If you haven't tapped I'm OK by then, the phone asks. If there's still no answer 30 minutes later, the family is told.

Tap Get my lock-screen picture and save it. Then set it as your lock-screen wallpaper.

Simple mode shows one screen of big buttons: I'm OK, Message my family, Call, Check on me, Log how I feel, medicine buttons and SOS. A parent or caregiver turns it on from the person's card: ⚙️ Settings › Simple mode › Save. Step by step: Turn on simple mode for Grandma.

• Open the trip link from your email or text on the phone, or use My trips sign-in in the app.
• ERGSS Field is for trips and work travel. ERGSS Family links open the ERGSS Family app instead. If the Field app shows your family, use ⋮ › Unlink this phone and open your trip link again.
• To switch to a different trip, use ⋮ › Unlink this phone, then open the new trip link.

• I'm OK tells the watch officer you're fine. Tap it when asked during a roll call or a warning.
• Watch officer calls or messages the 24-hour watch.
• My day shows your schedule and check-in times. A missed check-in alerts the watch officer and your supervisor.
• People traveling with you show on the map so you know who is nearby.

• Open the app, tap ⋮ › I'm a watch officer: get on-call alerts here, and paste your on-call link (it contains /oncall/). Keep this link private.
• On-call alarms ring even on silent and fill the screen until you acknowledge them.
• The boards along the top (Operations map, Watch board, Comms, Trips & projects, Personnel, Watch log, Protocol) scroll sideways. Swipe the row to see the rest.
• To get back from the traveler view: ⋮ › Switch to watch officer view.

• All trips and projects (the first dropdown): show everyone, or pick one trip to see only its travelers and safe places.
• 🔍 Fit all: zooms to fit every traveler on screen. 🇺🇸 United States and 🌎 World jump to those views.
• ✏️ Draw zone (geofence): draw an area on the map and choose a ✅ safe zone (logs arrivals and departures) or a ⛔ area to avoid (alerts when a traveler goes in), and whether the alert rings. Every trip also gets automatic geofences around the trip site and each saved safe place, so arrivals and departures are logged without drawing anything.
• ⚠️ Threats on/off shows or hides active threats. The shaded area is the impact radius. All threat levels can be narrowed to Moderate and above or High and above, to cut the clutter.
• Street-style map switches the base map to Satellite & terrain or Night lights.
• 🏙️ Cities shows or hides city names. 🌧️ Radar adds live weather radar. 🚦 Traffic adds live traffic at street level.
• 🗂️ Layers ▾ (inside ☰ Map tools on a phone) opens a panel of tick boxes. Close it with ✕:
  • Products (ERGSS staff): ERGSS deployed personnel, Global Watch travelers, and agency vehicles shared with ERGSS.
  • Customers or clients: untick one to hide their travelers from the map.
  • Critical infrastructure: hospitals, nursing homes, fire, police and EMS, shelters, schools and colleges, power plants and transmission lines, gas pipelines, refineries and fuel terminals, dams, wastewater plants, hazardous chemical sites (EPA RMP), cell towers and principal ports.
  Infrastructure only draws once you zoom in to about county level, because it's too dense to show nationwide. Until then the map says to zoom in. Tap a dot to see what it is. The data is public (HIFLD), so check it before relying on it in an operation. Your choices are remembered on that device.
• Enhanced map: select a person, vehicle, site or threat first, then tap it for a street map, satellite or Street View of that spot.

The key under the map: green checked in, amber due or overdue, red help, SOS or unaccounted, blue waiting for a first check-in, ◆ project site, orange shading active threat, dashed line hurricane forecast track. A faded marker means the position is more than 6 hours old.

Alerts stack at the top of the Operations map in red, most urgent first. For each one:

• ✅ Acknowledge: you've got it. The person sees that the watch officer has it and the on-call page stops.
• 📞 Log contact: record how you reached them.
• NOTIFY box: call or copy the message for the supervisor or emergency contact, then ☑️ Mark notified.
• 🚓 Copy for dispatch: a ready-to-read report for 911 or local dispatch (name, location, coordinates, what happened, contacts).
• ✔️ Resolve once they're safe, or 🚫 False alarm if it was pressed by accident (the reason is logged and they're told).
• 📋 Details and history and 💬 Messages show everything about that person.

• 📣 Safety roll call: pick a trip, a division or everyone near a threat. Each person gets an "Are you safe?" card with two buttons, and the answers come in live. Anyone who taps I need help becomes an assistance call.
• ⏰ Request check-in on one person, or Request check-in from all overdue.
• On a threat: ⚠️ Request check-in from exposed staff or 📣 Warn everyone in range.

1. Open Trips & projects and tap ✈️ Plan a trip. Add the location, dates, supervisor and staff, check-in rules, flights and safe places. ✨ Estimate this trip builds a budget.
2. 👥 Roster: who's on it, the sign-up link and QR code, add travelers, end the trip.
3. 📄 Send brief: emails and texts everyone the threat and health brief for the location, to acknowledge.
4. ✉️ Resend assignment or 🔗 Resend link if someone lost theirs. 📱 Open their app view shows exactly what that traveler sees.
5. 🔕 Suspend trip alarms pauses missed check-in alarms (an SOS or help call still alarms). 🔔 Resume turns them back on.
6. 🗄️ Archive when it's over: everyone is stood down and nothing is deleted. ♻️ Restore brings it back.

Open Comms for conversations with each traveler. On a trip, 📢 Broadcast to site messages everyone at once, and 🚨 Everyone on the trip report here rings every phone and opens navigation to the place you pick. You see who is on the way and who is there.

• 📢 Staff recall asks every off-duty watch officer to log in and help.
• 🗂️ Incidents opens one incident per threat automatically, with a timeline of every alert, message and action.
• Watch log is the running record of the watch: alerts, check-ins, contacts, warnings and who did what.

• Your on-call status shows at the top (for example On call · primary). Tap it to change it or go off duty. 📟 On-call lists who is paged when an alert isn't acknowledged here.
• Audible alerts: turn on so the screen sounds an alarm for new alerts. Keep screen awake stops a watch screen from sleeping.
• 📣 Community alerts brings public warnings from county alerting systems into the watch log. 📺 Wall display puts every module on one screen, or pops each out to its own monitor.

Under Division and supervisor logins, tap ➕ Add a limited login. That login sees and runs only its own division's trips, so a client supervisor can watch their own people, chat with them and choose who gets alerts.

Open Protocol to set how often people check in, the grace period before an alarm, who is notified at each step, and how far from a threat people are warned, by threat type. Reset to ERGSS defaults puts the standard settings back.