React Mobile Safety App

The Problem

React Mobile, founded in 2011, had a clear premise: press a button, get help. The product paired a discrete wearable Bluetooth device called the Sidekick with a smartphone app. When the user pressed the button, a preset list of emergency contacts would immediately receive a text message and email containing the user’s location. Simple, fast, and potentially life-saving.

They needed the initial version of the mobile application built before the company could launch.

What We Built

We developed the app using the open source Titanium Mobile framework, targeting both iOS and Android from a single codebase. The initial feature set covered everything needed for a consumer safety app at launch: emergency contact management with photos, email and SMS notification support, Bluetooth pairing with the Sidekick wearable, Facebook sign-in, and a live web console for viewing a user’s location in real time.

Email notifications were handled through SendGrid and SMS alerts through Twilio, giving the platform reliable delivery across both channels without building that infrastructure from scratch.

The app was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign and launched to consumers on both major platforms. The Sidekick received media coverage from WGRZ, an NBC affiliate in Buffalo, New York.

A Note on the Titanium Framework

This project marked the beginning of deep involvement in the Titanium mobile development community. That work eventually led to helping bring Titanium’s ongoing maintenance and organizational structure into a 501c3 nonprofit founded in Alabama. We now serve as chairman of the Titanium Foundation and have helped keep the framework actively maintained through management of open source community contributors and corporate support.

Titanium remains part of how we build cross-platform mobile applications today. It’s a framework we don’t just use — it’s one we help sustain.

The Outcome

The app launched successfully on both iOS and Android, funded by a Kickstarter campaign. The React Mobile Sidekick wearable received media coverage from WGRZ, an NBC-affiliated news outlet in Buffalo, New York. React Mobile later pivoted into the hotel wearables market, taking the core technology into an enterprise direction.

Technologies Used