Air alert app development for real-time emergency notifications

Task

Previously we've written the article "Together with Ajax Systems, Stfalcon developed an app "Air Alert". And now you can get to know the whole case study below! Let’s dive in!

This case is unique because many people in war conditions united to create a complex technical solution as an alternative to the outdated street notification system. Such projects have been created for years; we did it in a few days.

Before the war, Stfalcon's mission was: "We develop software that improves people's lives." Now, the mission is: "Developing software that improves and SAVES people's lives."

From the first days of the Russian-Ukrainian war, it became clear that anyone could suffer from airstrikes and missile attacks. From our experience, air alarm signals are almost inaudible in the sleeping areas of large cities. If everyone was on guard during the day, the situation became more complicated at night.

Solution

Our CEO, Stepan Tanasiychuk, had the idea to create an alert application that would inform people about danger, even at night, even when the phone is in silent mode and Do Not Disturb mode.

The first versions of the Ukraine alert apps were created in a few days in cooperation with the Ajax team, with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. The complete development cycle from understanding the need to the first release took 1 day (the 4th day of the war).

On the 5th day of the war, the alarm alert app notified users in Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi, with 40,000 users. On the 6th day, we went into an official release with 140,000 users. In a few days, all regions of Ukraine were connected to the alert application. The theory of six handshakes worked here because it was necessary to reach out to the administrations of all regions of Ukraine through the Ministry of Digital. That is, the difficulty of implementing the alert application was not so much in development but in management and communication.

After the second release, the Stfalcon team joined the development of mobile applications. In general, the idea arose in Stfalcon, Ajax helped with the technical implementation, and Stfalcon was involved in the launch and implementation of the concept, integration of the missile alert application at the state level, testing, and building the support department. The latter was helped by the marketing agency “The Kasta” and the “Fwdays” team, which built a support department from scratch.

Development

As of July 10, 2023, the rocket alarm app has significantly expanded its functionality compared to the first releases in March 2022.

Mark Hamill (the actor who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars) voiced the English version of the Ukrainian air alert app.

The application contains a map of air alerts throughout Ukraine with the history of the start and end of the alert. Currently, users are notified of the beginning and end of five types of alerts:

• Air alert
• Shelling
• Street fighting
• Chemical threat
• Radiation danger

Responsible operators transmit information about all types of danger in Ukraine's regional administrations. Emergency services coordinate alerts. Unique notifications are created for each type of alert. In addition to sound signals, the app sends text messages with action recommendations depending on the threat.

Based on numerous requests from citizens of Ukraine, the Stfalcon team implemented the multi-subscription function in the Air Alert application, which allows the user to subscribe and receive notifications from 5 different regions, not only one.

The volume function is now split into Alert Volume, start notification, and Alert Volume, end notification. If you are already safe, this will allow you to not wake up at night from the “air alert is over” signal.

In the "Air Alert" application, a link to the "Shelter!" A Telegram bot created by Stfalcon has been added to the threat notification screen. This bot allows you to quickly find the nearest shelter on the map based on your geolocation.

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