Start here. Take a breath.
Many overdue alerts are just a drained battery, lack of signal, or a trip that ran long. Don’t assume that, though. Work through these in order.
Call or text them.
Try a few times over a few minutes. A phone with no signal on the trail can come back once they reach the parking lot.
Open the link in the alert.
It shows the note they wrote before they left, when they were due back, and how late they are, plus any profile details they added. One button copies it all as plain text.
No password needed, and it works in any browser. Once they check in, the page turns green and their sensitive details are removed, so you'll only see them while they're still overdue.
Check with whoever might know.
A partner, a roommate, the people they usually ride with. If their note mentions being with somebody, start there.
All of their contacts were alerted at the same moment you were, and others are likely trying to reach them too. If you know any of them, a quick call can save everyone time.
Still nothing? Call 911.
You don't need to be sure. Tell dispatch what you know, along with the information from step 2. They'll know the right team to send, whether that's the county sheriff, park rangers, or search and rescue.
Don’t go looking alone.
Search and rescue does this for a living. You’re most helpful by the phone, with the details in front of you.
Thirty seconds, then you’re done.
No account. No app. No password to forget. And if it's not for you, just say so. No explanation needed.
An email arrives
From Rangerly, naming the person who added you and explaining what they’re asking. It has one button on it: Respond.
Answer two questions
Can we email you? Can we text you? You can say yes to both, just one, or neither. Your email address is already filled in, and No thanks is on the first screen.
Reply YES to the text
Phone carriers require your OK before we can send you texts, and it's how we know we can really reach you. We send one message from +1 (603) 435-2220 and wait. Until you reply with
YES, alerts won't go by text.Save the number as Rangerly while you're there, so an alert never looks like spam.
How the timing works
They tell us when they’ll be back. We remind them before the clock runs out. Then we tell you.
The trip starts
They set a return time and leave a note. You hear nothing, and you never get a message saying a trip has started.
Fifteen minutes to go
We nudge them, and only them. Nothing has gone wrong and you still haven’t been told the trip exists.
The return time passes
No grace period. Within five minutes you get the overdue alert, sent from our servers whether or not their phone is on.
They check in
Everyone who was alerted gets an all-clear, within five minutes of them doing it. You can relax.
What our texts look like
We only send three kinds, all from +1 (603) 435-2220. Know them before you need to.
Rangerly: Sam added you as an emergency contact. Please confirm that you’re willing to receive alerts if they miss a scheduled check-in by replying YES to this message.
Rangerly: Sam missed a scheduled check-in. Please review their trip here: app.rangerly.net/
Rangerly: Sam has safely checked in. No further action is needed. Thank you for watching over them.
Have the conversation now.
Five minutes on a quiet evening saves a lot of guessing on a bad one. Decide together what you'll do if an alert ever comes.
- Where they usually ride, hike or paddle
- What they drive and where they park
- How late is “normal late” for them
- Who else is a contact, and who calls whom
- Anything dispatch should know about them
Questions contacts ask
No, and neither can we. Rangerly never reads anyone's location — there is no tracking, no GPS trail and no last-known point anywhere in the product.
If they miss a check-in you get the note they typed before they set out, word for word, along with their times and whatever they chose to put on their profile.
No. There is no app, no account and no password. You accept an invitation once, and after that the only thing you ever have to do is open a link — which works in any browser, on any device, with nothing to sign in to.
Yes. Each person invites you separately, and each invitation arrives on its own.
We send it once, on every channel you confirmed, and we do not send it again. There are no repeats and no escalation.
You are not the only one holding it, though: every contact they have named is alerted at the same moment, which is the main reason we tell people to pick more than one. And the link in the message stays live for thirty days, so finding it in the morning still gets you the full picture — including an all-clear, if one has since arrived.
No. We hold your name, the email address you were invited at, and your mobile number if you gave us one. We use them to send you these messages and nothing else. Your number is never sold and never used for marketing.
You are not being watched by the person who added you either — being somebody's emergency contact tells them nothing about you.
Reply STOP to any of our texts, or use the unsubscribe link at the foot of any of our emails. Either one takes effect immediately.
Want this for your own trips?
$5 a month after a 30-day free trial, no credit card to start. You already know how it works.
Start a 30-Day Free TrialOr read how a trip works, what we send and when, or how you'd pick your own contacts.