What a tag can't do
A person tag is useful in one situation: the person walks out while you are in the house, and you want to know quickly. Beyond that it has real limits. Please read them.
It shows range, not location
The tag talks to your phone over Bluetooth. How far that reaches depends on the tag, the walls and where the tag is worn, and it is usually the same floor or a few rooms away. Nudgent knows whether the tag is connected. It does not know where the tag is. After it goes out of range, you don't know where the person is. The map shows where your phone was when the connection was lost.
It isn't instant
The phone only notices the tag has gone after a few seconds, sometimes up to about 20, and then waits for the "wait" setting you chose (60 seconds unless you change it). A tag that is slow to reconnect can also cause a false alarm. That is the safer way for it to go wrong, but too many false alarms are a problem too.
Things that stop it working
- Bluetooth is turned off, or Nudgent doesn't have permission to use it.
- The phone is switched off, flat, or in a different place from the person.
- Nudgent has been closed from the app switcher. An iPhone won't wake an app for Bluetooth after that, so alerts stop until you open Nudgent again.
- The phone has restarted (for example after an overnight update) and hasn't been unlocked yet. Alerts resume after you unlock it once.
- Nudgent was reinstalled or updated and hasn't been opened and tested since.
- You installed Nudgent from Xcode as a test build. These stop working after 7 days, and alerts stop with them. Nudgent warns you in the days before.
- The tag's battery is flat, the tag is taken off or left behind, or it is damaged.
- A Focus mode (such as Sleep or Do Not Disturb), Scheduled Summary or the silent switch hides or silences the alert, so it may not wake you.
- The phone has no notification permission for Nudgent.
False alarms
A tag can drop out of range for harmless reasons: a thick wall, a metal cupboard, the person in the garden. If alerts happen too often you may start to ignore them, which is dangerous. Use the wait and the hours settings so that an alert means something. Don't switch alerts off and forget to switch them back on.
It alerts one phone
Alerts reach only the iPhone that is watching. Nudgent doesn't send messages to other people.
It is not a safety guarantee
A tag doesn't replace supervision, ID, a recent photo, or a plan for what to do if the person goes missing. It is also not a way to stop someone leaving, and Nudgent will never be one.
If you need to know where someone is
You need a different kind of device that can show location, and the same questions about agreement and best interests apply. Talk to the person's care team or your local adult social care service about what is available.