Citizen, an app that monitors local crime and allows users to film it as it happens, has now launched a subscription service. Protect is a subscription service that allows subscribers to pay $20 per month to reach Citizens virtual security agents whenever they feel threatened.Citizen's Tuesday update represents a major change in its business. Previously, Citizen sent alerts to users via their smartphones about nearby crime and incidents. The company has launched a paid service to monitor the safety of its users. It is also expanding an existing service that privacy advocates have long decried as too broad.Protect functions as a Life Alert button on your phone. To connect to a Protect agent via video or text chat, simply touch the red Get Agent button in the Citizen app. The agent can help you locate your location and call the police. An agent can reach emergency contacts who have the Citizen App installed to help you in case you are incapacitated, or are too busy with your emergency to contact them.Since early 2021, the feature was available only to selected beta testers. Today it is available in an app update so that any Citizen user can sign-up.The app's new version can listen to your screams. Distress Detection is a subscription feature that monitors your phone's microphone to detect sounds that could indicate trouble. Citizen cites a human scream for an example. Citizen claims that the Distress Detection feature works only on iOS but will expand it to other devices.Andrew Frame, Citizen CEO, states that we are only on a journey to improve the public safety system and to use technology to accelerate it.Citizen claims that the beta service has been used by around 100,000 people. Citizen gave me a free trial last week of Protect. It worked perfectly during my week of testing. I could contact Protect agents via text or video chat by pressing the Get Agent button at the bottom of my home screen. One of my tests resulted in me connecting with Agent Aaron, a Protect agent. He told me that they could see the location of my device, battery level and travel zero rate, as long as I was still. Agent Aaron also stated that they could see my heart rate if Protect was synchronized with an Apple Watch. This extra layer of data would allow them to see if I'm exercising or panicking. (Citizen says it isn't commenting on any health-sensor-related features at this time.)Protect Mode is an iOS setting that allows you to access the phone's microphone to enable the above scream alerts. You can also unlock a gesture option which allows you to shake your phone to send an agent a message. Both worked well when I tried them. However, it took some shouting to get the app working to send an alert. Citizen agents can then notify emergency responders of your phone's location and loop in Citizen agents. Citizen will create a public alert to notify nearby Citizen users in the event of an official response.We need your helpProtect is Citizens' first subscription-based offering. A paid product is long overdue. While the company has raised venture capital funding since its inception in 2016, it only hinted at its future plans to build a profitable business. Frame stated that Citizen would monetize the company's early 2020 earnings in 2020. Frame said last year that the VCs had stated that they would not continue funding Citizen until they figure it out. Although the timeline was a little shaky due to the pandemic, investors don't seem to be concerned by the company's inability to make a profit. Citizen raised $50 Million in Series C funding alone this year.After months of beta testing Protect is now available to all 8 million Citizens users. It is not clear if customers will accept a paid service from one of the most controversial tech companies.
