Crash detection and SOS alerts for motorcyclists
On a mountain road an ambulance can be hours away, and the rider behind you is minutes away. Qafilaa detects a hard impact on the phone, gives you a countdown to cancel, and then alerts the riders nearest you first, with your position and your medical card.
How automatic crash detection works
- The phone's own motion sensors watch for a hard impact while you ride. The sensing happens on the device; the raw motion data never leaves your phone.
- A countdown starts when an impact is detected. If you are fine, one tap cancels it and nobody is alerted.
- If the countdown completes, an alert goes to the riders closest to you first, with your position, your bearing and your blood group, and to your emergency contacts.
- With no signal, the alert is queued on the phone and fires the moment any rider in the convoy gets a signal.
Crash detection is on by default. You can switch it off, but we would rather you did not.
Why the nearest riders hear first
On the roads Qafilaa was built on, the Manali-Leh highway or the Spiti circuit, the nearest help is usually another rider in your own group: someone already on the road you are on, who can be there in minutes. So the alert goes to them first, with enough to find you and know what they are dealing with.
Sending an SOS yourself
Press and hold the SOS button to alert your crew and your emergency contacts with your last known location. Holding rather than tapping means a pocket or a gloved hand is far less likely to send one by accident.
The medical card
Your medical card holds your blood group, allergies, conditions and medications. Nobody sees it until an SOS or a crash alert fires. Then the riders responding and your emergency contacts see a summary, so whoever reaches you first knows what they are dealing with.
Fewer false alarms
A safety alert that cries wolf gets switched off, and then it is no use to anyone. That is why a detected impact starts a countdown rather than an alert, why a manual SOS needs a hold, and why a rider who has simply fallen behind gets a calm notice to the group, not an SOS.
Qafilaa alerts the riders around you and your emergency contacts. It does not call an ambulance or the police, and it is not monitored around the clock. In an emergency in India, call 112.
Part of riding together
Crash detection works best with the rest of the app around it: the live convoy map shows responders where you are, and offline maps get them there when the network does not. The permissions page explains why the app asks for motion and background location.
Questions riders ask
Does Qafilaa detect motorcycle crashes automatically?
Yes. Crash detection reads the phone’s motion sensors on the device and is on by default. A hard impact starts a countdown so you can cancel if you are fine. If the countdown completes, an alert goes to the riders closest to you first, with your position, your bearing and your blood group.
Will a pothole or a dropped phone set off an SOS?
A hard impact starts a countdown, not an alert. If you are fine, cancel it with one tap and nobody is alerted.
What happens if I crash where there is no signal?
The alert is queued on your phone and fires the moment any rider in the convoy gets a signal. The riders around you are usually the first people who can reach you anyway, which is why they are alerted first.
Can I send an SOS myself?
Yes. Press and hold the SOS button to alert your crew and your emergency contacts with your last known location. Holding rather than tapping is deliberate, so a glove or a pocket cannot send one by accident.
Does Qafilaa call an ambulance or the police?
No. Qafilaa alerts the riders around you and your emergency contacts. It does not contact emergency services and is not monitored around the clock. In an emergency in India, call 112.
Qafilaa is free on the App Store and Google Play, for iPhone (iOS 15.5 or later) and Android. No advertising, no cross-app tracking.