Emergencies and Staying Safe
What the EMERGENCY button does and doesn't do, how Need Help works, and how to ride safer with OnMyLead. OnMyLead is not an emergency service.
OnMyLead helps your group keep track of each other. Phones lose signal, batteries die, and positions can be late or wrong, so use it alongside your own plan, not instead of one.
Everything on this page is free on every plan. None of it needs Pro.
What EMERGENCY Does
The EMERGENCY button in Ride Mode alerts everyone on your ride at once.
- In Ride Mode, tap EMERGENCY. It stays on screen even when the bottom panel is folded.
- Read the Emergency screen. If you're sharing your location, it shows your coordinates in large type, so you can read them out on a call.
- Press and hold Alert My Group until it sends. A quick tap won't send it.
- If anyone is hurt, tap Call 911 to open your phone's dialer.
Tap Cancel to close the screen without sending anything.
When the alert goes out:
- Every rider on the ride gets a notification, "EMERGENCY: your name needs help now", with "Tap to see where they are."
- It shows in red on their Ride Mode screen. If you're sharing your location, they see you on the map and can tap Navigate to get directions to you.
- Help and EMERGENCY notifications are always on for every rider, even in quiet hours, and they come through even from a rider someone has blocked.
You see a card showing whose phones have the alert. If you sent it by mistake, tap Cancel on the card and the group is told to ignore it. See Send a Status or Quick Reply.
What EMERGENCY Doesn't Do
- It doesn't call or text 911, emergency services, or anyone else.
- It doesn't reach anyone who isn't on the ride.
- It can't send without a connection. With no service, the alert waits on your phone and sends by itself when you get signal. Riders also need service to receive it.
Need Help
Need Help is for when you need the group but it isn't an emergency. It sends with one tap, shows in red for the group, and notifies everyone on the ride the same way, including during quiet hours.
When things are sorted, tap Resolved, I'm OK so the group knows.
Ride Safer
- Call 911 first in an emergency, then alert your group.
- Share your location for the whole ride, so Ride Bubble and the group can see you, and so riders can find you if you call for help. See Share Your Location.
- Send a family link to someone at home, and tell them when you expect to be back. See Share a Family Link.
- Download the ride's map before you lose signal. The map keeps working offline, but positions only update with a connection. See Offline Maps.
- Allow notifications so you hear when someone needs help. See Notification Settings.
- Allow location Always, so your group can see you with your phone locked.
On Android, allow location While Using the App: the Sharing Your Location notification keeps your group seeing you with the phone locked. Need Help and EMERGENCY arrive in the Rider Alerts notification category, which Android shows at the highest priority.
- Never type or read the screen while driving or riding. Pull over first. Ride Mode is built for one-tap use when you're stopped.
- Carry what you need to get yourself home, and ride within your skill and your machine's limits.