How Woof works
Woof asks you first. Then the people you trust.
You tell Woof when to expect to hear from you, or let Super Woof notice for itself. Either way, it checks on you before anyone else hears a thing.
Setting it up
Three things, once
Add your pet
Name, breed and the basics. Woof draws your pet from a set of illustrations rather than generating a picture, and you can add vet records whenever you like.
Build your Safety Network
Invite the people you would actually want called: a neighbor, a sibling, a friend with a key. Each one gets a message explaining what they’re agreeing to, and has to accept. Woof will never contact somebody who didn’t.
Choose how Woof protects you
The Dead Man’s Switch, where you answer on a schedule. Or Automatic Protection with Super Woof, where leaving home and coming back start and end the clock for you. One or the other: Woof asks you to pick, so there is only ever one countdown running.
This choice is only about how Woof notices. The automated escalation that follows is the same on every plan, free included: Woof asks you, warns you, then reaches your Safety Network.
On a normal day
You tap once, and nothing happens
When your check-in is due, Woof sends a notification. You answer it from the notification itself; you don’t have to open the app, find a screen, or remember a password. The timer resets and that is the whole interaction.
- Woof reminds you before the deadline, not afterThe reminder is a courtesy and is sent quietly, so a routine nudge never overrides Do Not Disturb.
- Confirming resets the full intervalChecking in doesn’t buy you a few extra minutes. It starts your interval again from the beginning. One button, one meaning.
- You can pauseGoing somewhere your pet isn’t? Pause it. Woof will not pretend to be protecting you while paused.
If you miss one
What actually happens if you miss a check-in?
Woof checks on you first, and keeps trying you before anyone else hears a thing. Only if it truly can’t reach you does it guide your Safety Network through what to do next. This is the whole path, walked on real phones.
Woof checks on you
Nothing dramatic happens when a deadline passes. The app enters a checking state, and the biggest thing on the screen is the button that ends it. Nobody else has been contacted, and nobody will be yet.
Woof is checking on you
It keeps trying you
Woof keeps trying to reach you through more than one channel: a notification, then texts that get harder to miss. Every one of them reaches you, not your contacts: repeated chances to confirm you’re okay before anyone else is involved.
Woof: you haven’t checked in. Reply YES to confirm you’re okay, or open Woof. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll contact your Safety Network.
Woof still hasn’t heard from you. Reply YES to confirm you’re okay, or open Woof now. Your Safety Network will be contacted shortly.
Only then: your Safety Network, one at a time
In the order you chose, never all at once. The text carries your first name and a secure link, not your address and not your pets’ medical details. Everything sensitive stays behind that link, for the person who says yes.
Woof: John hasn’t checked in and we can’t reach them. You’re one of their Safety Contacts. Can you help? woofhelp.com/…
They say whether they can actually help
The link opens a page that asks before it assumes. If they can’t right now, that’s a button too. Woof simply moves on and asks the next person straight away. Nobody is guilted, and nobody is presumed available.
Can you help John?
You are one of John’s Safety Contacts on Woof. John hasn’t checked in, and Woof hasn’t been able to reach them.
The pets
Whoever says yes is shown how to help
Not an alarm, a briefing. Everything you chose to make available, organized for somebody standing at your door: call you first, with one tap. The address, with a map. Each pet’s feeding, water, walks and where the lead hangs. Medication notes, and the vet’s number.
Try John first. A phone call is the quickest way to settle this — if you reach them, tell Woof below.
Where John lives
42 Demo Lane, Sampleton, NY
Looking after Max
Feeding One cup of kibble, morning and evening.
Water Bowl in the kitchen, topped up twice a day.
Walks Two short walks. The lead hangs by the front door.
Medication One joint tablet with breakfast.
The vet
Demo Veterinary Clinic · (555) 555-0100
They tell Woof what they found
The page ends with honest options, and Woof tracks the answer, because a delivered text was never the finish line. And Woof distinguishes between someone helping your pets and someone actually reaching you: pet care alone never confirms that you’re safe.
Tell Woof what happened
And at any point, you can end it
The moment Woof hears from you, the escalation stops: one tap on I’m okay in the app or straight from the notification, or from a browser through My Woof with a recovery code, because texting a code to the phone you just lost helps nobody.
If nobody could resolve it
Two levels of support, one honest line between them
Every Woof account
Limited Support
Everything you just read, from reaching you to your Safety Network to guiding and tracking whoever helps, is the standard Woof safety workflow, and it’s free. If everyone in your Safety Network has been tried and no one can resolve the situation, the automated escalation ends there. Human follow-up from Woof is what Full Support adds.
Super Woof · you choose to turn it on
Full Support
Everything in Limited Support, plus human follow-up if your Safety Network can’t resolve the situation. A person at Woof reviews the unresolved case and, when it’s appropriate under Woof’s support procedures, can contact the authorities to request a wellness check. That is always a deliberate decision by a person, and it’s opt-in: Super Woof members can keep Limited Support if they prefer.
On every plan, without exception: Woof software never automatically calls 911, dispatches emergency services, or requests a wellness check. And Woof never decides you’re safe on somebody else’s word, because someone helping your pets is not the same as someone reaching you.
That’s the whole mechanism. If it sounds like the plan you’d want in place, it’s free on the App Store and Google Play.
Free to download. Free core protection, with no trial and no expiry. iPhone and Android.