NIU Safe

Northern Illinois University (NIU)

About this app

NIU Safe is the official safety app of Northern Illinois University. It is the only app that integrates with Northern Illinois University's safety and security systems. NIU Department of Police and Public Safety has worked to develop a unique app that provides students, faculty and staff with added safety on the NIU campus. The app will send you important safety alerts and provide instant access to campus safety resources.

NIU Safe features include:

- Emergency Contacts: Contact the correct services for the NIU area in case of an emergency or a non-emergency concern

- Panic Button / Mobile Bluelight: Send your location to Public Safety in real-time in case of a crisis

- Friend Walk: Send your location to a friend through email or SMS on your device. Once the friend accepts the Friend Walk request, the user picks their destination and their friend tracks their location in real time; they can keep an eye on them to make sure they make it safely to their destination.

- Tip Reporting: Multiple ways to report a safety/security concern directly to NIU Public Safety.

- Virtual WalkHome: Allow NIU Public Safety to monitor a user’s walk. If a user feels unsafe when walking on campus, they can request a Virtual WalkHome and a dispatcher on the other end will monitor their journey until they reach their destination.

- Safety Toolbox: Enhance your safety with the set of tools provided in one convenient app.
- Chat with Security: Communicate live with safety staff at NIU via chat.
- Notification History: Find previous Push Notifications for this app with the date and time.
- Share Map with your Location: Send your location to a friend by sending them a map of your position.
- I’m OK!: Send your location and a message indicating that “You’re OK” to a recipient of your choosing.

- Campus Maps
- Campus Map: Navigate around the NIU area.
- Transit Map: Find transit routes currently in service.

- Emergency Plans: Campus emergency documentation that can prepare you for disasters or emergencies. This can be accessed even when users aren’t connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data.

- Support Resources: Access support resources in one convenient app to enjoy a successful experience at NIU.

- Safety Notifications: Receive instant notifications and instructions from NIU Public Safety when on-campus emergencies occur.

Download today to ensure you’re prepared in the event of an emergency.

Ratings and reviews

This app has a lot of potential, and it's great that it's trying to address/solve the safety issues that it does. However: This app asks for WAY too many permissions; ones that it just should not require in order to do what it claims to do. So either there is malicious intent by the designers to gain far too much access to, and control of, a student's phone, or there has been some blatant lack of oversight in the app permissions requested by the app. Fix it.

This app is easy to navigate through. Have found the information I was seeking a number of times. Would highly recommend.

Despite my short time there, the app actually works pretty well.

What's new

Performance improvements.