What is AppArmor? A Look at Custom-Branded Safety Apps

With the addition of AppArmor’s custom branded safety apps, Rave Mobile Safety now offers the most comprehensive solution in the market for communication and incident response. As people come back to the office, return to school, or simply remove their masks across your community, welcoming them back with a customized content and safety application to help with that transition could prove invaluable. 

What is AppArmor? 

A proactive and reactive safety tool.  

Founded in Toronto and now a global company, AppArmor is a custom-branded innovator of public safety. They develop custom-branded mobile safety apps, emergency notifications and crisis response apps for organizations in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia & New Zealand, and Europe. AppArmor products are helping to protect millions of individuals worldwide. 

Since its humble beginnings, AppArmor has had tremendous success. Their “customer first” philosophy which focuses on intuitive interfaces for safety content for end users, affordable pricing for partner organizations, and industry-leading customer service has proven to be a winning combination. The AppArmor method of mass customization has proven both scalable and effective in delivering solutions to help people in a crisis. 

Where did the Idea of AppArmor Come From? 

While attending his alma mater, co-founder, Dave Sinkinson completed an audit of the emergency blue-light poles on the college campus. When they found that a considerable number of the poles were broken, they realized that this was giving students a potentially false sense of security. From there, the idea for a custom-branded safety app was born. 

What Industries does AppArmor Serve? 

The majority of AppArmor customers are in higher education. Colleges and universities across North America have implemented the safety app and utilized its custom branding capabilities. Aside from higher education, AppArmor is often used in healthcare and corporate organizations. AppArmor is deployed statewide in Florida and Hawaii. They also serve K-12 school districts, government agencies and police. 

AppArmor Products at a Glance 

• AppArmor Safety: 

• • AppArmor Safety is a mobile safety app platform that is entirely branded to the organization, can be modified in real-time using our content management system, and includes over 50 powerful safety features. 
  • It has unlimited push notifications, advanced location sharing, geofencing and the ability to modify app behavior, restrict access to features, or entirely replace content based on the end-user location. 

• AppArmor Work Alone: 

• • AppArmor WorkAlone is a real-time lone worker app module that confirms the safety status of your people based on automated check-ins.  
  • It is highly configurable, with automated notifications, an emergency button, real-time Monitoring, multiple instances and geofencing. 

• AppArmor Report: 

• • AppArmor Report is a comprehensive and advanced reporting app module that combines a custom branded safety app with advanced reporting. 
  • It offers anonymous reporting, automated report routing, escalating report notification, SMS and chat options, multi-language support and custom branding. 

• AppArmor Command: 

• • AppArmor Command is a crisis communication and response app module for your first responders and EOC teams. 
  • It offers team chat rooms, automated conference call bridges, offline ready emergency plans, searchable address book, real-time team status and unlimited internal push notifications. 

• AppArmor Academia: 

• • AppArmor Academia is a branded student engagement app platform that provides a broad range of engaging features, numerous new aesthetic customization options and dynamic content. 
  • Academia is student configurable, with unlimited push notifications, geofencing capabilities, SSO support, powerful aggregation, and detailed analytics. 

How Does AppArmor Allow for Customization? 

AppArmor can be customized in virtually an endless number of ways. Organizations start by creating their own branded app. For instance, The University of California, Los Angeles UCLA has named their app “Bruins Safe.” its icon, background colors, and headers can all be customized to fit within the organization’s brand guidelines. The “Designer” Content Management System allows admins to make changes in real-time without having to submit their app to the Appstore. This saves them valuable time when getting safety resources “out there.”  

The Designer can also be used to add and remove any of the features of the platform in real time.  

How do AppArmor Features Work? 

Within AppArmor there are both standard and premium features. Standard features are included in the base license for the app, whereas the premium features come at an additional cost. 

The standard features in AppArmor are:  

• Emergency calling capability 
• Unlimited Push notification capability (fully integrated with Rave Alert) 
• Mobile “Blue Light” panic button with real-time location share with the authorities 
• Friend Walk real-time location sharing with a contact 
• Virtual Walk-home location sharing with a dispatcher  
• Suspicious activity reporting capability by email, photo, or video 
• Mapping capabilities including but not limited to dynamic crime mapping 
• Geofencing capabilities, including Geo-Phone and Geo-Gate 
• Additional Administrative dashboards as required 
• Offline-Ready emergency plan documentation 
• Embedded information for additional services (e.g., health, counseling, and disability services) 

The Premium Features are: 

• Check-In alerts (Two Way Push Notifications) 
• Work Alone safety check in system 
• Additional in-app locations 
• Additional in-app languages 
• Social Escape 
• EOC (Emergency Operations Centers) features 

Which Features are the Most Popular? 

FriendWalk is the most popular feature on the platform. With the click of a button, users can share their location with a friend in real-time even if the other person doesn’t have the app. Incident Reporting is often used as well and not just to report criminal activity. Users can report a suspicious package, a need for medical response, IT outage, power outage, cyber security issues and more. As for premium features, WorkAlone is highly popular in industries where users may be more isolated for extended periods of time. 

What are the Main Benefits of AppArmor and How Can You Best Prepare for Success? 

The AppArmor platform helps organizations before, during and after emergencies. It is up to the organization to decide how much or how little information they provide their users. To best prepare for success, the AppArmor team suggests providing as many features and resources as possible. For example, organizations can provide valuable information like “What to have in your safety kit” or “What to do if you see a suspicious package.” These resources go a long way in terms of preparing users for potential emergency incidents. 

As for the main benefits of AppArmor, the fact that the app is proactive and reactive allows users to have the tools to maximize safety. AppArmor helps users better prepare, respond, and recover from safety incidents. The app connects users to the correct resources and tools so that they do not waste time getting connected to incorrect ones. After an incident, users can also request further assistance and recovery help.  

Learn More

On May 25th, 2022, Rave Mobile Safety hosted a webinar with AppArmor. School leaders, university personnel, corporate stakeholders, healthcare executives, and government leaders are constantly worried about the unknown – kept up at night wondering if they have the right tools in place to protect and connect with the people they care about. Watch the webinar recording to learn more about the combination of two industry leaders and what this ultimate integration of solutions could provide you.