Two years after Facebook added a safety check feature to let users notify family and friends they were safe after a disaster or public tragedy, Google is following suit, launching its own standalone personal safety app. 

The service, Trusted Contacts, allows users to select a group of friends and family members that will be notified of your location and safety after an emergency situation, Google announced Monday. 

To use the service, customers download the Trusted Contacts app, sign in with their Google Account, and assign the “trusted” status to friends and family they want to notify.

In the case of an emergency, these contacts will see your status to quickly know if you’re okay, Google says, noting that the system works whether or not the phone is online. In the event the phone is offline, contacts will see the last known location of the user.

If someone feels unsafe, they can choose to share their actual location with trusted contacts.

Conversely, if a users’ trusted contacts are worried about their friend or family member, they can request your location. Users can then choose to accept or deny the request, however, if someone doesn’t answer within a certain amount of time the location is sent automatically.

Those thinking of using the app should be aware that it requires them to have Google Location History on.

ArsTechnica points out that this isn’t the first location sharing service Google has used. The company also offers Google+ Location which is tied to a customer’s Google+ account.

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