App can discreetly alert bar staff to trouble
JUST the tap of a phone screen can summon help in a potentially dangerous situation.
The Contactless Menu app is used by 40 to 45 venues with thousands of users in Portsmouth.
The new safety feature #NoMore allows a user in trouble to tap the #NoMore icon in the app, select a location – be it a table number or toilet – and then select a decoy excuse, such as failed payment, lost ID or bank card.
This decoy reason gives venue staff a pretence to get involved, and immediately come to the woman’s aid in an uncomfortable or unsafe situation.
App co-creator Paul Cramp told The News he wanted to modernise Ask Angela – a scheme that urges people in trouble to ask bar staff for Angela, signalling they need help.
He said: ‘We’re not saying we can replace a 999 call and we can’t save everyone but what we’ve got here will offer the best form of prevention out there.’
Paul, who worked on the app with co-creator Anthony Clarke, said the app already has more than 25,000 users across Portsmouth and Southampton. The safety feature is launching first in Portsmouth.
The app has cleared 80,000 separate orders since lockdown was lifted and around 1,000 users are signing up each week.
‘They can press a button on the app, they can call for assistance from a table, from a toilet cubicle or a hotel room,’ he said.
‘It’s an absolute game-changer.’
The safety feature will launch from Friday in Emporium, Playground, Chambers, The King’s, The Beach Club, The Art Cafe, Jessie’s Latin Lounge, Broadway Coffee Shop and the Queens Hotel.