Witness is a livestream emergency app

Coming out of the TechCrunch Disrupt NY Hackathon is an app that takes livestream apps a step further. Marinos Bernitsas developed an app called witness that starts recording live audio and video as soon as you tap on the app’s icon. But it isn’t like Meerkat or Periscope that livestreams an event and shares it with your social networks. Instead, it only sends the feed to selected contacts. It also doesn’t show on the screen that you’re recording. It’s pretty much built to be used for emergency purposes. Bernitsas said it was built with personal safety in mind and with police brutality making headlines in the US, there doesn’t seem to be a better time for this app to surface.

Of course there will still be drawbacks for these kinds of apps but they do show us the possibility of how you can keep safe in the smartphone age.

Source: TechCrunch