myJikita
myJikita is a free mobile application for iOS and Android that lets you share where you are with the people who would worry about you — and, if something goes wrong, gives rescue teams the one thing they never have enough of: a place to start looking.
It works on the mountain, which means it works without a signal. Positions recorded in a valley with no coverage are kept on the phone and sent the moment there is network again. Maps can be downloaded before you leave. The app keeps recording while it is in your pocket and the screen is off.
File: img/myjikita/home-01-map.png
Shows: The main map screen with the user's own position, the floating menu
button, and an outing in progress in the bottom card.
What it does
| Share an outing | Tell chosen contacts where you are going, and let them follow your position live until you are back. |
| Follow other people | See the people who are sharing with you on your own map, with a roster that puts whoever needs attention first. |
| Send an SOS | Raise the alarm with your contacts, switch tracking to its fastest rate, and make your position unmistakable. |
| Navigate offline | Download map areas and GPX routes before you leave, and use them with no signal at all. |
| Carry a Jikita tag | A small Bluetooth beacon that keeps you findable when your phone is dead, drowned, or out of reach. |
| Chat during an outing | A group thread with the people following you, which queues messages offline and sends them when coverage returns. |
Where to start
- New to the app? Start with Install myJikita, then Your first outing.
- Not sure it is worth the trouble? Read Why telling someone where you are matters. It is the shortest page here and the most important one.
- Someone shared an outing with you? Read Watching someone else — being a contact is a role, and it has a job attached to it.
- You have a Jikita tag? Go to What a Jikita is.
- Worried about your data? Everything we hold, who can read it, and how to get rid of it is in Privacy and your data.
What myJikita is not
It is worth being blunt about this, because the difference can matter a great deal on a bad day.
myJikita is not an emergency call. Pressing SOS alerts the contacts you chose. It does not dial the emergency services, and it does not put a rescue team in a helicopter. In an emergency, call the emergency number — 112 across Europe, and in France 112 for any emergency or 15/18 if you prefer. The app's job is to make sure that when somebody does call, the position that comes with the call is accurate. See Calling for help.
myJikita is not a satellite beacon. Your phone needs a mobile network to send a position. In a place with no coverage the app keeps recording, but nobody sees those positions until the phone finds a signal again — which may be on the way down. This is exactly why the app shows you your coverage gaps afterwards: see Coverage and white areas. A Jikita tag closes part of that gap, but a Personal Locator Beacon with a satellite uplink is still a different class of device.
myJikita does not watch you. The app records your position only while you have deliberately started an outing, and it shares it only with contacts you picked, for that outing. Stop the outing and the sharing stops. Nothing is published, sold, or shown to anyone you did not choose. The complete account is in Who can see your position.
Languages
myJikita is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese. It follows your phone's language by default, and you can change it in the app's settings — see Settings and your account.