— What NANA’s Case Tells Us About Automatic SOS (Auto SOS) When You Can’t Call for Help Yourself
A man in his 30s broke into the house with a weapon, threatened NANA and her mother to hand over their valuables, and a physical struggle broke out.
In the end, the mother and daughter managed to overpower the intruder together, call the police, and the officers arrived and arrested him — this is the luckiest possible version of the story.
After watching the news, most people are left with just two reactions:
“Terrifying.”
“Thank goodness they’re okay.”
But the question that keeps sticking in my mind is this:
What if they hadn’t managed to overpower him?
What if there had only been one person at home?
What if you were pinned down, tied up, gagged, and couldn’t even touch your phone?
In that situation, would you really still have a chance to call for help in the usual way?
NANA’s story this time is a “close call with no lasting harm.”
But “close call with no harm” is not a default feature of life — it’s just good luck.
And precisely because it was “just luck,” it forces us to think seriously about something else:
When you can’t move your hands, can anything like an Automatic SOS system still speak for you?
1. Don’t Assume “This Would Never Happen to Me”: It Can Happen Even in a “Good Neighborhood”
When people see a story like this, there’s a very natural mental defense:
“That’s their world. Where I live, that kind of thing would never happen.”
But based on the information that’s been made public so far,
NANA doesn’t live in some run-down building. Her home is in a reasonably good environment,
with decent conditions and non-trivial management —
you could call it a higher-priced area with a relatively high standard of living.
The point is: even in that kind of environment, an armed home invasion still happened.
If a celebrity-level person, living in that level of housing,
in a place with at least okay security and building management,
can still have a stranger with a weapon walk straight into her home,
then for the rest of us living in ordinary apartments, condos, or houses,
saying “this kind of thing will never happen to me” really has no solid basis.
- High-end communities ≠ 100% safe
- Security guards and access control ≠ incidents won’t happen
- Higher property prices ≠ lower risk of danger
If something like this can happen in an upscale residence,
then of course it can happen in an ordinary one.
Rather than comforting ourselves with “it probably won’t happen to me,”
it’s more honest to ask:
“If this did happen to me, have I ever thought about what my next step would be if I can’t make the call myself — and whether I have any kind of Automatic SOS safety net at all?”
2. We Seriously Overestimate Our Ability to Call for Help
Most people assume that as long as:
- Their phone is nearby
- Their home has basic locks
- There are neighbors or some kind of building management
then even if something happens, they’ll “probably be able to call for help in time.”
But reality often plays out very differently:
- In that moment, people freeze: shocked, threatened, unable to react properly.
- Yes, the phone is physically there — but you are already under someone else’s control.
- Your hands are grabbed
- You’re pushed to the floor
- You’re pinned in a corner
- Or even tied up and gagged
In that state, all designs that rely on
“making a call, opening an app, tapping an SOS button”
collapse instantly.
All of those assume one thing:
“You can still freely operate your phone.”
But in many real-world cases, the truly fatal factor is:
The person is still alive —
but no longer able to call for help on their own.
That’s exactly the moment when a manual SOS is no longer possible —
and when something like an Automatic emergency SOS alert is the only thing that could still work.
3. When There’s Only One Person at Home, the Risk Doubles
In NANA’s case, at least there were two people — mother and daughter.
Someone could resist, someone could call. There was a chance to act.
But in many households, the reality looks like this:
- Only one person is home during the day
- Before the kids come home, only the caregiver is in the house
- People living alone spend long stretches without seeing anyone
- With night shifts and weekend work, the house is often empty or just briefly occupied
When there’s “only one person” in the house, the risk doesn’t just go up a bit —
it skyrockets:
- There’s no one to notice something’s wrong:
“Why haven’t they replied today?” “Why didn’t they go out?” - There’s no one to call the police for you
- There’s no one to explain where you are or what might have happened
In the news, what we see is the part after the incident is discovered:
- Police briefings
- Media footage
- Family statements
But the most critical part is often this invisible stretch:
“The hours or days before the person is found.”
During that time, the world is on mute for the victim.
They can’t call out.
And no one else has realized that they should be looking.
That’s exactly the window where an Automatic SOS alert with location
could be the only voice you still have.
4. The “Safety Equipment” You Trust Is Only Doing Half the Job
When we think of “safety,” we tend to think first of things like:
- Security cameras
- Better locks and deadbolts
- Motion lights and gated access systems
These are all important. They’re all working toward one goal:
“Do everything possible to keep bad people from getting in.”
But the real world doesn’t follow our ideal diagrams.
Sometimes, intruders do get in.
Sometimes, what happens isn’t a crime at all, but an accident:
- Falling and hitting your head inside the home
- Slipping in the bathroom and losing consciousness
- Getting up at night and missing a step on the stairs
- Feeling faint in the kitchen and collapsing suddenly
There’s no armed robber here.
No violent struggle.
And yet, you can still end up in this situation:
“Lying on the floor at home, for hours or even a day, and no one notices.”
In other words:
- Cameras are protecting your entrances and hallways
- Locks are protecting your doors
But almost nothing is watching over the state of the person living there.
Traditional security protects the perimeter.
What’s missing is a layer that protects you —
a kind of Automatic SOS / Auto SOS layer that notices when something is wrong
and sends out an emergency signal for you.
5. The Real Question: If You Can’t Call for Help, Who Will Know — and How?
The core question I keep circling back to is very simple:
“If something really happens and I can’t call for help myself,
who will know, and how will they find out?”
You can break that down into three layers.
(1) Who is the first person that should know?
- Family?
- A friend you’re in regular contact with?
- Someone nearby who would actually come over if needed?
This person shouldn’t be the type who thinks
“three days of no response is normal.”
They should be someone you’re willing to entrust with:
“If something’s wrong with me, you’re the one I want to know.”
(2) What gets sent can’t just be “I feel scared”
If your SOS is just a vague “I’m scared…”,
the person receiving it will have no idea what to do next.
A truly useful SOS needs at least:
- A clear signal that “something is seriously wrong,” not just chit-chat
- Your rough location (a GPS link or a clear address)
So that the person on the other end can immediately understand:
“This isn’t a joke. I should call them now, go check on them,
or contact the authorities.”
(3) When you can’t move your hands, who acts on your behalf?
This is the hardest — and most crucial — layer.
Most systems, devices, and apps are built around this assumption:
“When something happens, open me and press the SOS button.”
But in many real incidents, the script looks like this:
- Things happen too suddenly to open anything
- You can’t even reach your phone
- You’re already unconscious
- Or you’re being physically restrained
That’s why I keep feeling that current “help” mechanisms are missing a vital piece:
A way to automatically “speak up for you”
when you are no longer able to.
In other words, what’s missing is a reliable,
Automatic emergency SOS mechanism —
an Automatic SOS alert that doesn’t depend on you being able to tap anything at all.
6. Why I’m Building SafeGuard: Auto SOS SMS+Call
That’s why I decided to focus my energy in this direction.
SafeGuard: Auto SOS SMS+Call
is not meant to be some flashy, do-everything super-app.
It has a very simple focus on two basic things that are often missing —
the two things any emergency SOS app should get right:
1️⃣ Letting someone know that something has happened to you
2️⃣ Letting them know where you are
When certain conditions are met
(for example, long periods with no interaction, or abnormal situations),
your phone will automatically do two things —
this is our version of Automatic SOS alerts with SMS + Call:
- Send an SMS to the trusted contacts you’ve preset, including:
- A warning that something may be wrong
- A link to your current GPS location — an automatic emergency alert with location
- Automatically place a call, giving them a chance to check on you immediately
The point isn’t a “cool interface” or a long list of features.
It’s simply being able to answer these two questions:
“Will someone know that something’s happened to you?”
“And will they know where to start looking?”
That’s what I want an Auto SOS system to guarantee.
I don’t believe this will prevent every tragedy in the world.
But I do believe it can shorten the time until you’re found —
and in cases that would otherwise drag on until it’s “too late,”
it might nudge the ending a little bit toward something better.
7. Don’t File This Away as “Celebrity News” — Treat It as a Drill for Your Own Life
For most people, NANA’s case will soon be buried under the next wave of headlines.
But if you’re willing to think a little further,
I think it’s worth treating this not as “someone else’s news,”
but as a simulation exercise for yourself.
- Replace “NANA” with yourself, your family, your partner
- Replace “a good, well-managed residence” with the place you actually live
- Replace the rare “mother and daughter overpowering an intruder” pattern
with “being home alone”
And then ask yourself:
“If the same thing happened to me,
and I was unable to operate my phone at all,
is there any way someone would still realize something’s wrong —
some kind of Automatic SOS or Auto SOS mechanism watching my back?”
You don’t have to use my app.
That’s honestly not the main point.
What I truly hope is that you’ll at least think clearly, in advance, about:
- Who will know if something happens to you?
- How will they know?
Because in many real-world stories, what decides the ending
is not simply:
“Did this person have an app installed or not?”
but rather:
Once they could no longer call out for themselves,
was there still anyone in this world
who would automatically be alerted —
“Something’s wrong. And they’re here.”
And if the answer is “no,”
then maybe it’s time to seriously consider
putting some form of Automatic SOS in place for yourself.
Chinese 
English