Watching someone else
Somebody has shared an outing with you. They chose you deliberately, out of everyone they know, to be the person who notices if they do not come back.
This page is what that means in practice. It is short on purpose — you may be reading it for the first time at the worst possible moment.
File: img/myjikita/watch-01-notification.png
Shows: The push notification "… has shared an outing with you" on a lock
screen.
What you are being asked to do
Not to stare at a map. The app does the watching. You are being asked to do three things:
- Have notifications on. If myJikita cannot reach you, none of this works.
- Notice if they go overdue, and check in.
- Be willing to call the emergency services if the answer is silence.
That is all. The rest of this page is about the third one, because it is where people hesitate.
What the app will tell you
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| A new outing | They have set off and are sharing with you. |
| A pin on your map | Their most recent known position. |
| "Overdue" | They have passed their own expected return time. |
| An SOS | They pressed the SOS button. This is deliberate and it is a request for help. |
| A quiet pin that has stopped moving | Could be a lunch stop, could be no signal, could be a problem. On its own it means nothing. Read it together with the clock. |
The roster sheet orders everyone you are following by urgency — SOS first, then unread messages, then overdue, then whoever has been silent longest. If you are following several people, the one at the top is the one to look at. How to use it is in Following someone.
Silence is not evidence of anything
This is the point that misleads people most, so it is worth stating plainly.
A position that stops updating does not mean something is wrong, and it does not mean everything is fine. Mobile coverage in the mountains is full of holes. Someone can walk for an hour in a valley with no signal, and their pin will sit still for that hour and then jump. The app shows you when a position was captured as well as when it arrived, precisely so you can tell "nothing has happened in three hours" from "three hours of positions just landed at once".
So: judge by the clock, not by the pin. The expected return time is the signal. A pin that has not moved for two hours while they are still well within their planned day is normal. The same pin two hours after they should have been home is not.
If they go overdue
A calm, escalating sequence. Do not skip to the end, and do not stall at the beginning.
1. Send a message in the outing thread. One line: "All good?" It will be delivered as soon as their phone has signal, and it costs nothing.
2. Call them. If it rings out, that is not informative — they may be out of coverage. If it goes straight to voicemail, that is also not informative — the phone may be flat.
3. Check the map. Where was the last position, and when was it captured? Are they near the end of their route or nowhere near it? Did they go off their planned route, and where?
4. Check the other contacts. If they shared with several people, somebody may have heard from them. Do this quickly; it is the step where hours disappear.
5. Call the emergency services. In Europe, 112.
When to call — and the mistake everyone makes
The mistake is waiting.
People wait because they are afraid of looking foolish, of "wasting" rescuers' time, of the cost, of being the one who overreacted. Mountain rescue services say the same thing every season: they would far rather come out for someone who turns out to be fine. A call that is stood down after ten minutes costs almost nothing. A call that comes two hours late can cost everything, and by then it is also dark.
Call when:
- They pressed SOS. Do not deliberate; that is what the button is for.
- They are meaningfully overdue and you cannot reach them.
- Their track shows something that does not make sense — stopped in steep terrain, far off route, or moving in a way that does not fit the plan.
- You have a bad feeling and you have already tried steps 1 to 4.
You will not be scolded for calling.
What to say when you call
Have the app open. Read from the screen. What follows is what rescue services need first — the full version, including how the position reaches them, is in Calling for help.
- Who is missing: name, age, what they were wearing, level of experience.
- What they were doing: the activity from the plan.
- Where: the place from the plan, and their last known position — read the coordinates straight off the app.
- When: the time that last position was captured (not when you saw it), and the time they were due back.
- That they are using myJikita, that their position is being recorded, and that a more complete track can be provided to the rescue service.
- Whether they carry a Jikita tag, and its number if you know it. Say so explicitly — it changes what a search team can do.
Then do what the operator asks, stay reachable, and keep the app open.
Keep the thread alive
If you have spoken to them and everything is fine, say so — to the other contacts, in the outing thread. Messages sent while they are out of coverage are queued and delivered when the phone finds a signal, so a reply that seems to vanish has not.
A group that knows it has been stood down does not call 112 twice.
Your own privacy
Following someone does not share your position with them. Watching is one-directional: you see them because they chose to share, and they see you only if you start an outing and share it back. See Who can see your position.