Lantern watches your plan. So nobody has to watch you.
A safety app for solo trips. It ticks off your plan as you go, on its own. Go quiet when you should not, and your people are told where you were last, what today looked like and who to call.
Open the demo trip in your browser
- Ubud08:15, car
- Padang BaiArrived 10:40
- ShuttleLeft 11:30
- AmedExpected 14:00
- CangguSunday
- DenpasarFlight home
Zero check-ins. Your day does them.
Arriving somewhere, joining a wifi, moving on, adding a photo or simply using your phone all count. Each one carries the time, a rough location and your battery level. You do nothing.
Plans slip. Here is what happens next.
Lantern compares your day with your plan. Here is one afternoon from the demo trip, and who hears what.
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On plan
The day matches the plan. Nobody is told anything, because there is nothing to tell.
Who hears: nobody
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Running behind
Still moving towards the next stop, so the expected arrival simply moves. There is nothing for the traveller to do.
Who hears: nobody
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A quiet nudge
A planned arrival did not happen. The app asks you twice and gives you plenty of time. One tap says you are fine, one tap pauses everything.
Who hears: the traveller only
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Your people get a message
No answer to either question. The people you picked get a message. Any sign of life from you ends it for everyone.
Who hears: your two to five people
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On Anna's phone
Where Ben was expected, where he last moved, his last signal and battery, and a list of who to call, in what order, in that country.
Context, not just a dot
Would you use Lantern on your next solo trip, or for someone you worry about?
Thank you. Leave your email and we tell you when there is something to try.
Join the waitlistThank you, that helps just as much. What is the main reason?
Noted. Thank you.
Missed the bus? Nobody panics.
Missed buses and dead phones are normal. So nobody at home hears anything until the silence has lasted, and you are always asked first.
Nothing happens. Nobody is told.
A private nudge with a wide grace window. Only you see it.
Last confirmed place and time, battery, today's plan, tonight's address.
No dot to stare at
On a normal day your people see the trip, the photos and the fact that you are on plan. They cannot request a live location.
A dead phone says so
Battery level travels with every check-in, and a final beacon goes out under five percent. Your people see a reason instead of a gap.
Any sign of life closes it
The escalation ends at once, and everyone who was told is told that it ended.
Home is hours away. Someone nearby can stand by.
Your people at home are hours away. Checked places and checked people nearby can be asked to stand by, or to help, and you decide who sees where you are.
Places you can walk into
Hostels, licensed guides, dive schools, cafes and shops that agreed to be a safe place to walk into. Registered businesses with a named contact, checked every year.
People who opted in to respond
Travellers and locals who signed up and passed an ID check. They can be asked, they can say no, and there may be nobody nearby at all.
Kept apart from socialising
Meeting other travellers happens in a different part of the app. Responding is never a way to meet anyone.
A stranger never gets your location automatically.
"Walking back to my guesthouse after dark. Would like someone on standby."
- You see who is offering, and their level, before they see anything precise.
- You open your exact location to one person at a time, and you can close it again.
- Every responder contacted is named to your people at home in the same message.
Solo travel is normal now. The worry has not caught up.
Source for all three: Solo travel statistics, 2026.
Two to five people. Not two hundred followers.
Your route is a safety signal, not content. It is the most sensitive data you have, so these four rules are built in, not hidden in settings.
The questions people actually ask.
Still unsure? Walk through the demo trip and watch an afternoon go off plan, then back on.
What is Lantern?
Lantern is a safety app concept for people who travel alone, and for the two to five people at home who worry about them. You add your trip plan, and Lantern ticks it off as you go from ordinary phone activity, with no check-in texts. If your day stops matching the plan, it asks you first. If you do not answer, the people you picked get your last known place, today's plan and who to call. Lantern is not an emergency service. It is being built by a student team, and the demo runs in your browser.
What if I just miss my bus, or my phone dies?
That is the normal case, and it is why the stages exist. We ask you twice with a wide grace window before anyone at home is told, a single tap clears it, and a low battery sends a final beacon so your circle sees a reason rather than a gap. A system that cries wolf gets muted, so we tune for one that almost never alerts.
Is this my parents watching me?
No. The traveller builds the circle, decides what it sees, and can pause it. On a normal day the circle sees the trip, the photos and the fact that you are on plan. They do not get a live dot they can stare at all afternoon, and they cannot request one.
Will you call the police for me?
No, and we will never claim to. What we can do is make sure the right people know early and are holding the address, the plan, the local numbers and a sequence to follow. That is the part that is missing today.
How is this different from sharing my live location?
Live location tells someone where a dot is. It does not know where you were supposed to be, so it cannot tell that anything is wrong. Lantern compares your day to your plan, decides when silence stops being normal, and delivers context instead of coordinates.
Who are these verified people, and why would I trust them?
Places first: hostels, licensed guides and shops verified as registered businesses, with a named responsible person and an annual re-check. People second: identity checked against a government ID and a live selfie, and for anything urgent, vouched for by two other trusted responders or professionally credentialled. Verification does not make somebody safe. It proves identity and makes a person accountable, and every responder contacted is named to your people at home at the same moment.
Can a stranger see where I am?
Not unless you decide it, one person at a time. A request goes out as a rough area and a short description. You open your exact location to the person you pick, and you can close it again. Nobody can search for people who need help, there is no map of anyone in difficulty, and no responder keeps your location afterwards.
What does it cost?
Not decided. If you join the waitlist we will ask what you would actually pay before we decide.
Who is behind this?
A student team building this as a venture concept. This page is a concept test, not a shipping product. Everything on it describes what we intend to build, and we would rather hear that it is wrong now than in a year.
What Lantern is not.
Lantern dispatches nobody: no police, no ambulance, no rescue, in any country. In an emergency, contact local emergency services directly.
We do not claim to know that something bad has happened. We notice that a day stopped matching its plan.
Verified people nearby can be asked. They can say no, and there may be none. Everything else works without them.
This is a concept page for a product under development by a student team. The demo shows the idea, nothing more.
No news is good news. Now it actually is.
A shared location shows a dot. Lantern tells your people if something is wrong. Tell us which side you are on: the one who travels or the one who waits. We are talking to both before we decide what to build first.