AirFlare is an app that transforms a mobile phone into an outdoor safety and rescue device. AirFlare enables search teams to quickly locate an adventurer in need of assistance, whether in or out of cell service. AirFlare also provides a number of self-help features, for example, the ability to determine the exact location of a friend or family member with a single push of a button, and to quickly navigate to them.  

AirFlare is designed to keep adventurers safe in the outdoors across multiple scenarios. Please see the full list of AirFlare features in How AirFlare Works – Abilities and Features.

Anyone who likes to adventure in the outdoors!

Our vision of 100% Found speaks to our desire to create a search solution which is low cost, reliable, simple to use and accessible to everyone who likes to venture outside – from the casual weekend warrior to the most extreme adventurer regardless the outdoor activity.

AirFlare’s Self-Help and Peer-to-Peer features will work anywhere there is cell service. AirFlare’s Search Team Discovery features (the features which help a search team determine your location in or out of cell service) relies upon search teams in the area to have AirFlare Search Technology. We are ramping up operations and adding new search teams all the time. Please see our Coverage Map to determine where you can expect AirFlare coverage.

About the cost of a coffee per year. We wouldn’t be delivering on the promise of safety technology built into every mobile phone if it wasn’t affordable for everyone. Our intent will always be to keep the cost of AirFlare as low as possible.

Also, AirFlare is free to the men and women who volunteer their time and put themselves in harm’s way to keep us all safe in the outdoors. We do not charge Search and Rescue teams for either our search technology, or for AirFlare on their own phones. Our revenue is generated from AirFlare app subscriptions from adventurers, and your subscription helps us sustain this model.

Very likely! AirFlare works on over 90% of the phones in use today.

AirFlare works with iPhones running IOS 10 or later and with Android phones running Android 5 or later. To check the operating system version on your iPhone, GoTo Settings –> About Phone –> IOS Version, and for Android GoTo Settings –> About Phone –> Android Version.

Yes, AirFlare can be set up in 2 minutes or less.

AirFlare is downloaded from iOS or Android app stores. A simple 4 question registration process assigns your phone a unique Search ID and creates a profile providing critical information to Search and Rescue in the event you ever need help. That’s it! You don’t even need to remember to open the AirFlare app before you venture out. So long as your phone’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth remain enabled, your phone is discoverable by a search team using AirFlare Search Technology.

If you are in cellular service, you can send an emergency message from the AirFlare app to 911 or to a contact that will automatically include your GPS coordinates. (AirFlare Main Menu à In an Emergency à Send SOS Message). AirFlare is not designed to initiate an assistance call outside of cell service. Especially when traveling into an area with spotty or no cellular service, it is always a good idea to let someone know where you will be and what time you are expecting to return.

In cell service, your phone is discoverable anywhere in the world. If you become the subject of a search, a notification is sent to your phone. If you do not respond to that notification within 20 seconds, your phone’s GPS coordinates are automatically sent back to the search team looking for you. If you are out of cell service when a search is initiated, your phone will automatically send its coordinates back to the search team as soon as it returns to cell service – even if only briefly, and even with marginal service.

Out of cell service, detection range depends on the method of search and the type of environment being searched. Boots-on-ground or aerial searches in open environments without significant terrain obstacles can have detection ranges of 1/2 mile or more. Detection ranges decrease in areas that are heavily forested or have significant ridges and depressions, but still well outperform what is achievable via human eye or by camera on a drone.

Yes! You should definitely still carry an avalanche beacon wherever there is avalanche risk. While AirFlare has been proven effective in scenarios such as tree wells and snow caves, avalanche beacons are specifically designed for deep snow immersion and related avalanche circumstances. Please don’t substitute AirFlare’s broad capabilities for a purpose-built tool! Know your risk and get the training needed to handle these specific threats at avalanche.org.

Avalanche beacons, PLBs, SEND devices, they’re all great! We wish everyone had them when they needed one. But to conflate AirFlare’s capabilities with theirs does justice to none. To explain with a metaphor: bulletproof vests are great and save lives every year, but they’re also expensive, bulky, don’t protect your whole body, and don’t help if you don’t have it or didn’t put it on yet. In other words, they’re great at what they do, but also not the only way to save lives. Every day, people are kept safe via training, communications, protocols, and other technologies. AirFlare is a new type of protection that everyone can have all the time. We don’t see it as an “either/or” with existing technologies, but “better together” because everything has its strengths and limits.

Your profile information is how a Search and Rescue team identifies you in the AirFlare Registry and retrieves your AirFlare Search ID to find you. Your cell number is the most reliable way for a search team to identify you. Email is one of the ways we communicate to you that your profile has been accessed by a Search and Rescue Team and that you are the subject of a search. It is incredibly important your profile information is complete, accurate, and kept up to date.

Your AirFlare Profile can only be accessed by Search and Rescue personnel authorized by their team to perform a Registry search and will only be accessed when an official search is initiated to find you. If your profile is ever accessed, you will immediately receive both an email and a notification identifying the specific search agency which conducted the search. All Registry activity is monitored by the AirFlare team, as well as by responsible parties within each search team using AirFlare search technology. Please see our Privacy Policy for additional information.

No. The only time your location becomes visible to anyone is when you become the subject of an official search, or if your location is requested by a friend with whom you’ve previously connected via Peer-to-Peer. If and when you become the subject of a search, you will immediately receive an email and a notification identifying the search team actively searching for you. If a friend requests your location via the Peer-to-Peer feature, you will receive a notification.

AirFlare cannot be used by anyone to track or otherwise determine your location outside of these mechanisms.

Absolutely not. We are in the business of helping search teams find you, not advertisers. Please see our Privacy Policy for additional information.

If your question is not answered in our Privacy Policy, please contact us. We take privacy and security very seriously, and we want to hear from you if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions.