Designed for use by students, elderly parents, delivery, field service, and driving personnel, or anyone who works alone, the Moxee Signal ($120 with a $20/month subscription) offers an easy way to check in with a select group of friends and family and let them know you need assistance. It uses cellular and GPS technology to track your location and send three levels of alerts, one of which contacts an emergency response center when you are in need of immediate help, and it comes with a useful mobile app that provides real-time GPS mapping. It delivered rapid responses with accurate mapping in testing, but it doesn't offer two-way audio communication so there's no way for the wearer to know when help will arrive. If you require a device with real-time voice communication, the GreatCall Lively Mobile is your best bet, but you'll pay around $5 more per month.
Design, Pricing, and Features
The Moxee Signal is a small personal safety device that you can wear on your belt or around your neck, or carry in your pocket or purse. It measures 2.5 by 1.7 by 0.5 inches (HWD), weighs around one ounce, and contains cellular, Bluetooth, and GPS radios. It also has a haptic feedback motor and a rechargeable 413mAh battery that will last for up to five days before requiring a charge. The enclosure has an IP67 weather rating, meaning it can withstand submersion in up to three feet of water for 30 minutes.
There are four LEDs on the face of the device for power, alert status, network status, and GPS status, as well as an alert button, a speaker, and a microphone. A mini USB charging port is located on the bottom. It comes with a belt clip, a lanyard, a charging cable/power adapter, and a quick start guide.
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The Signal costs $120 and can be paid off over 24 months for $5 per month. It uses T-Mobile's LTE cellular service and requires a $20 monthly subscription that includes cellular connectivity and professional monitoring by a 24/7 emergency response center.
Here's how it works: As the Account Owner, you configure and activate the Signal using the mobile app on an Android or iOS smartphone. You can name yourself as the Device User (the person using the Signal) or name a family member, a friend, an employee, or anyone you wish, and you can manage multiple Signals from the same app. When setting up a User, the Owner creates a Contact list of people that will receive notifications when the User sends an alert.
When the User presses the button once, it initiates a Check-in alert, which generates a push notification, a text message, and an email to each contact and the Account Owner, letting them know where they are and that everything is OK. The Signal will vibrate once to let you know that the Check-in was sent and will emit a set of chimes each time the Check-in notification is received by the appropriate contacts.
Pressing the button twice initiates a Yellow Alert, which indicates that the User may be in need of assistance but is not in an emergency situation (think school bullying, work encounters, etc.). This too generates push and email alerts, but it also automatically records an audio clip that goes along with the alert. Contacts can tap the link in the alert to see where the User is on the map (via the Moxee website) and listen to the audio clip to help determine what, if any, action needs to be taken. They can also use the chat feature to talk among themselves to determine the best course of action. Once the situation has been resolved, the Account Owner can tap the Close Alert button, enter a unique PIN, and initiate a Close Alert message that is sent to all contacts.
A Red alert is sent by pressing the button three times. As with Yellow alerts, notifications with audio are sent to Contacts and the Account Owner, but this time a notification is also sent to an emergency response center where an agent will listen to the audio and call the Account Owner to determine if the local police or fire responders should be dispatched. If the Account Owner doesn't respond, help will be sent. The User will know that the alert was sent when the Signal vibrates and the Alarm LED glows red, and the device will vibrate whenever a Contact receives the notification, but there's no way for the User to know that help is on the way.
Despite being equipped with a speaker and microphone, the Signal doesn't support two-way audio, which means the User can't actually speak with emergency response personnel like you can with mobile medical alert devices such as the GreatCall Lively Mobile and the Medical Alert Mobile Elite. According to Moxee, two-way audio was intentionally left out, as the company believes it has the potential to escalate a tense situation. Personally, I would rather have the ability to speak with an agent to possibly give a description of an attacker or to help pinpoint my exact location with a vehicle description, an apartment number, or a specific room inside of a house (GPS will provide an address, but not an exact location).
The Moxee mobile app is used to configure the Signal, track the User's whereabouts on a map, add Contacts, and to view and respond to alerts. It's a user-friendly app that opens to a screen that shows the User's current location on a map. At the bottom of the screen is a tab with the User's name and location. Tap the tab to view the exact address and the last time the Signal updated its location. In the upper left corner is a three-bar icon that opens a menu where you can access Contacts & Settings, Alerts & Check-ins, and Users & Devices submenus.
The Contacts & Settings menu is where you go to configure Contacts. You can use contacts that are stored in your phone's contact list or create new ones, and you can decide who will receive Check-in, Yellow, Red, or all three types of alerts. The Alerts & Check-in menu lets you view all events for the past 14 days. Tap any alert event to see where it occurred on a map and the final resolution. Tap the Users & Devices menu to view and edit User descriptions and to see device information including battery level and Bluetooth pairing status. There's also a Device Finder that will trigger the Signal to chirp for 10 seconds if you've misplaced it somewhere around the house.
Installation and Performance
Configuring the Moxee Signal is easy. I plugged in the USB charger and let the device charge for an hour until the red power LED stopped flashing. I downloaded the mobile app and created an account, which requires your name, email address, and mobile phone number. You can add a photo here if you want. I agreed to a ridiculously long user agreement, verified my mobile phone number, entered my home address, and created the four-digit PIN that allows you to close an alert using any device on the account. I allowed notifications, access to my phone's microphone, and access to my phone's location services, and proceeded to power up the device.
When the connection LED turned solid green, I tapped Continue and waited less than a minute for the device to pair with the app. Once paired, I told the app who would be using the device, added a few contacts using my phone's contact list (you can also create new contacts here), and setup was complete.
I configured the Signal with myself as the User and the Account Owner and created a test contact. The device showed speedy response in every test situation, regardless of the type of alert sent. I received text messages, emails, and push notifications within 10 seconds of each alert, as did the contact. The device provided haptic feedback whenever an alert was sent and received, and GPS tracking was accurate and swift. Closed alert messages were instantly received by myself and the test contact.
I initiated three separate Red alerts and received a call from the emergency response center within 20 seconds. I confirmed with an emergency response agent that the alerts were received and closed before the local authorities were dispatched. Recorded audio was loud and clear.
Conclusions
The Moxee Signal makes it easy to monitor the whereabouts of loved ones or employees and provide help if needed. It provided speedy response testing, and GPS accuracy was spot-on. Additionally, the app was thoughtfully designed and easy to use. That said, the lack of two-way audio is a glaring omission: There's no way for the user to communicate with an emergency response agent to describe what's happening or to be assured that help is indeed on the way. If you require a personal safety device that provides point-to-point voice communication, consider a mobile medical alert device such as our Editors' Choice, the GreatCall Lively Mobile. You'll pay around $5 more for a monthly subscription, but you'll have immediate access to a live emergency response agent as well as real-time GPS mapping and contact messaging.
The Moxee Signal is a tiny personal safety device that lets you check in with friends and family and send alerts when you feel unsafe or when you're in an emergency situation.
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Contributing Editor
