SwannActiveResponse Mobile Personal Safety Alarm - 110dB Loud Emergency Siren with SMS Alerts & Mobile Connectivity, Long Battery Life, Smart SOS Safety Alarm, Key Chain, MPRS

I work in the city and frequently have to leave after dark. The city isn’t especially dangerous. Not compared to a lot of others, but there’s always that small chance of something happening. And I’m female in my 30’s… so I would rather be safe than sorry. Because of this I have used and tried quite a few doffeeent personal alarms. The one I’ve had on my key ring for the last almost year was a cheap one, but is really loud. So when I came across this Swann ActiveResponse Mobile Personal Safety Alarm I really liked that it had an app and would alert specified people if I set off my alarm which is ultimately what sold me on it.Unfortunately however there is one major issue with this, along with some small ones. But the biggest one is that this just isn’t very loud. My previous one (that was under $10 mins you) was so loud that it startled me even when I knew i was setting it off to test it. This isn’t even close to that level. It’s more like the highest level on my phones volume, which ultimately isn’t very loud.Also worth noting is that this thing randomly beeps for no reason. I had to switch back to carrying my old one after the beeping kept going off in meetings and while talking to important people.Overall I’m not very impressed with this unfortunately.

This is a great product except for one major thing which is probably been mentioned. It makes a beep. It could be a problem or not, but boy would it be nice if it was simple to disable it which I have been unable to do. I don't know if it's one of those you have to do a subscription so that they could allow you to do that which would be very scummy. But yes, I ended up getting this for my mom for peace of mind just in case of anything. And of course this does work the way it should and I am glad that she has it. But she often complains to me about the beeping so as much as I am glad that she has it, I just really really wish that it did not have that issue. It's still rated four stars because it works so hopefully there never ends up being an emergency but if there is this would probably come in a bit handy as opposed to nothing

This isn't an overly loud alarm to start with. It would be noticeable from nearby but not from very far away. So you just need to consider what your use case is here. Are you looking for something that can be heard from far away? Or are you looking for an alert in a somewhat populated area that would at least grab attention or startle someone. Pretty sure this would not work in somewhat remote / sparse running trails but maybe in a park scenario where there are already people around.However, less that 4 months after we got this, it started beeping randomly. It took me a while to figure out where it was coming from but we eventually narrowed it down to this alarm in the drawer we keep it in. I'm guessing it may be a battery warning or something but I think that would be way too soon for a battery to go bad. But it emits a single beep every few minutes (although not constantly). So I really don't know what it is trying to tell me. Several others have noticed it too so it's either a design flaw or an unclear warning of some sort. I'm guessing a battery might solve the problem but I would have thought it would come with one that lasted longer than 4 months...

This is the perfect sized personal alarm. Fits nicely in your purse or handbag. It does have an app and a paid version, but the free version works well to make a loud (really loud) deterring noise and without paying for the plan, you can have it text a contact for you. This gave me the peace of mind to be out by myself when it is dark out, or when I go for a run that is a longer distance. It fits nicely in my pants pocket or my waist bag. Highly recommend to have just for peace of mind. Remember, any loud noise will startle a potential attacker - so just that element of this safety alarm puts you ahead of the game.

I actually have three of these because I thought they would be good for household members. However, they have been nothing but problems. One frequently beeps at random, and usually at the worst possible time. My wife had it in her purse during a work meeting when it started loudly beeping/chirping. It just makes annoying random loud beeps. A second one was shipped with a completely drained and non-functional battery. We couldn’t even power it on. I swiped the battery from another unit which hasn’t been used yet for that reason. I plan to reach out to Swann support to have a charged battery sent because they are not cheap. Another issue is the app. We have the Swann app, along with a subscription for Swann cameras. I added the alarms to the account. Now, every time I launch the app, I get an alert to enable always location. It’s enabled on my wife’s phone, which also has the app/account installed, so I don’t need to enable it on my phone since I don’t carry the device. Yet, whenever I’m trying to quickly view my Swann cameras, I have to first dismiss a pop-up warning me to give the Swann app “always” location permissions. My daughter got tired of the constant disconnection and other alerts, so she stopped carrying her alarm. And therein lies the problem. If a device is so annoying and frustrating to use, it may have the opposite effect of what was intended. That is the case here. I had so much hope and anticipation for these alarms that I expected every family member to carry one. Now, nobody wants to be bothered with it due to the constant nagging and other negative aspects of the device.The one feature I do like that seems to work reliably is the alert feature. If the button is pushed, the alarm sends a text requesting help and containing location information of the user, to pre-designated recipients. That seemingly works fine. The audible alarm is moderately loud, but likely wouldn’t attract much attention in loud urban environments because it sounds like so many other alert tones. It has a better chance of sticking out and attracting attention in quiet suburban or heavily rural environments. But given how annoying these can be, I have my work cut out for me to convince my family to carry them and not ditch them altogether.