Your phone knows everyone's number.
You don't.
contact4me is the thing you set up today — so that the day you lose your phone, you can still reach someone who cares about you.
Can you name three phone numbers from memory?
Most people can remember their own phone number, and that's it. That is especially true when they are stressed. Everyone else lives in a rectangle of glass that you are one dropped bag, one pickpocket, one flat battery away from losing.
And the moment it goes, so does everything attached to it. No numbers. No banking app. No tickets. No way to tell anyone where you are or that you are all right.
You are standing in a city you do not know, holding nothing, and you have no way of getting home or even phoning your own family.
contact4.me is the answer.
It is being tested with a small group at the moment, so sign-up is not open to everyone yet. Register your interest and we will tell you when it is.
It's completely free. It takes about 5 minutes to register. There is no app to install.
Create a free accountHow it works
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1
Set it up while you still have your phone
Add the people you would actually ring in trouble, and write the messages you might need to send. Calmly, in advance — because nobody composes a good message while panicking on a stranger's phone.
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2
Remember two things
Your own mobile number, and a PIN you choose. That is the whole of what you need to carry in your head. Nothing else.
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3
Borrow any phone, and reach someone
Sign in on a stranger's phone or a hotel computer. You see a list of first names, nothing more. Tap one, pick a message, and we text them for you.
Lost your phone right now?
If you set this up before, you do not need anything except your own mobile number and your PIN.
Send a messageWhat the person you choose receives
Text message
- Where you are, if you let the browser share it — as words and coordinates they can put straight into a map.
- A code word only you and they know, agreed long before anything went wrong.
- A reference they can check on this site, to prove the message really came from you.
The hardest part isn't sending the message
It is being believed.
An unexpected plea for help, from a number nobody recognises, mentioning a service they have never heard of, looks exactly like a scam. Most people would ignore it. So the whole design works against that.
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They are told in advance
When you add someone, you send them a short message explaining they are on your emergency list, and telling them the code word to expect.
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Every message can be checked
Each text carries a reference. Anyone can put it into our scam check, with the number it was sent to, and find out whether we really sent it.
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The borrowed phone learns nothing
No phone numbers, no surnames, no code words on screen — only the names you chose. Nothing is cached, and signing out clears what we can.
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Whoever finds your phone cannot use it
The emergency sign-in cannot change your account, read your contacts, or see a single number. It can send a message, and that is all.
What it costs
Nothing.
There is no charge, no app to buy, and no advertising. If that ever has to change, we will say so before it does — not after.
What this is not
It is not an emergency service. It does not contact the police or an ambulance. It texts the people you chose, and nobody else. If you are in danger, call 999, or ask someone near you to call.
Text messages can be delayed or lost, and phones get switched off. This is a good plan. It should not be your only one.
Set it up before you need it
You cannot do this afterwards. That is rather the point.
Create a free accountAlready set up? Sign in to change your details.
or
I have lost my phone — send a message