Gauteng e-Panic button app tested — with impressive results

MyBroadband tested the Gauteng provincial government’s e-Panic button and was impressed with its user experience and overall performance.

Upon its launch alongside a physical panic button fob in May 2024, the province described it as an innovative technological solution designed to enhance the safety of Gauteng residents.

“It allows users to instantly alert emergency services and law enforcement at the touch of a button, ensuring rapid response in times of distress,” it explained.

Former Gauteng finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo first revealed the plan to procure 500,000 panic buttons for citizens in the province’s medium-term budget policy statement in November 2022.

The cost of buying and distributing half a million physical buttons would have been astronomical, which is why the Automobile Association of South Africa told MyBroadband the plan would only make sense if the government used a panic button app instead.

Fortunately, that is exactly what it did.

While it plans to distribute 100,000 physical buttons to the public in the coming months, most of the province’s 16 million+ population can immediately access the panic button through a smartphone.

The Gauteng e-Panic button app is available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

The Android version was downloaded over 50,000 times and scored an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 from 117 reviews by the time of publication.

We downloaded this version and tested it out for ourselves.

Downloading the app required about 108MB of data. Once installed it took up roughly 208MB of storage.

To start using the app, we first had to provide a mobile phone number which could receive a one-time PIN via SMS for authentication.

After completing this step, the app required entering a name, surname, email address, and phone number.

We then had to agree to the Terms of Service agreement for the app, which did not seem to contain anything untoward. This agreement is available on the app’s settings page at any time for those who want to peruse its fine print in detail.

We also had to grant the app permission to access three functions on our phone — location, motion, and notifications. The app provided explanations for these requirements, which are shown in the screenshots below.

We were then taken to the app’s home page, which had a straightforward and uncluttered layout.

The three biggest buttons — Report a Crime, Medical Emergencies, and Activate Armed Response — were also the most important ones.

Tapping the first button brings up a page where the user must enter the type of crime they witnessed, provide a short description of the incident, and upload images of the alleged crime, if possible.

We focused on the panic button feature, knowing that we would be quickly able to explain our intent to an operator and avoid dedicating too many resources to a non-emergency.

Initially, we assumed that tapping the Medical Emergencies button would open a page similar to that of the Report a Crime button.

To our surprise, this instantly activated the medical emergency response request. This happened around 19:23 on a Sunday night from a home in Pretoria.

We received an SMS almost immediately confirming our request and that an operator would contact us soon.

Before we could even dismiss the request in main app, we had an incoming call from the response control room.

We quickly explained we were not in an emergency and had accidentally pressed the button.

The second time we tested the panic button was at 07:30 from our offices on a Tuesday.

This time, we chose the Armed Response option — which required holding down the button for three seconds — and again received an SMS confirmation nearly immediately. The operator’s call came within five seconds.

In both cases, the operators were clearly audible and professional.

To dismiss the requests, we were required to confirm our location and the last four digits of our phone number.

Dozens of users who gave the app positive reviews on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store had a similar experience to ours.

Low battery and data consumption

The app was also frugal in its battery and data consumption.

Throughout one full day of running in the background, it only consumed 1.4% of our smartphone’s battery.

A possible reason for this is the app’s usage of motion data, which disables location tracking when not required.

This appeared to work well, as we received a notification every time location tracking became active after getting up from our desk and walking around the office block after several hours of remaining stationary. The notification can be switched off if preferred.

The total data consumed over two days of use was about 8.5MB.

Despite background data usage access being switched to “Always” at all times, most of this consumption occurred while the app was open on the screen.

One improvement we would like to see is the addition of a widget or shortcut button that allows the user to instantly request medical assistance from their home screen.

Overall, we were impressed with the app, although we could not determine the effectiveness of the security and emergency responders it dispatches.

The Gauteng government did not explain if it had developed its own solution for the app or was using a third-party platform.

However, MyBroadband looked up the number from which we received a call after requesting assistance and found it under the contact details for Zendascape Pty Ltd, which trades as Aura.

Aura’s platform includes a network of more than 2,500 security and medical responders.

The company’s website says its customers include insurers and e-hailing services.

FNB’s GuardMe 2.0 and Tracker’s CareGuard panic button apps are among those confirmed to run on Aura’s platform.