Trusted person
A trusted person is someone you trust enough to make part of your personal safety net — the person who is notified in a crisis and looks in on you. In a check-in app, the trusted person is the same as the emergency contact, but the term emphasises the human side: it's about closeness, not technology.
Where "emergency contact" describes the function, "trusted person" describes the relationship. Safety when living alone doesn't come from an app alone, but from the connection to a real person who is ready to act if in doubt. The app is only the channel — the trusted person is the actual help.
A good trusted person is reliably reachable, knows you well enough to read a missing sign of life correctly, and is willing to do something in an emergency — call, come over, or get help. It's fair and important to ask them beforehand, rather than simply adding them.
How Still OK does it
In Still OK the trusted person is the heart of it all: you choose who's in your safety net. If you miss a check-in or trigger SOS, your trusted people are notified — real people you know, not an anonymous call centre. Still OK doesn't replace the conversation, it supports it: talk to your trusted person, and set up the net together.
Katrin, 44, freshly moved to Frankfurt, hardly knows anyone in the new city yet. Her trusted person stays her sister in Bremen — far away in distance, but close in every other way. In an emergency the sister would call and, if needed, alert the Frankfurt neighbour or the emergency number. Trust knows no distance.