A dead man's switch for solo travellers

Why do solo travellers set up a dead man's switch?

Travelling alone removes the second person who knows where you are and which hostel you booked. If you went quiet for a week, your family would have to reconstruct your trip from a credit card statement and whatever you posted online.

A dead man's switch fills that gap without turning your trip into a surveillance exercise. You write down the things that would matter in an emergency once, before you leave, and store them somewhere that releases to the right people only if you fail to check in. While you are fine, nobody sees the contents. If you are not fine, the people you chose get a clear packet of information instead of a blank page. Some people also use a long trip as the moment to do their wider digital legacy planning.

What is a dead man's switch, and what is it not?

The mechanism is simple. You create a box of information, choose who should receive it, and set a check-in interval, for example every three days. As long as you keep checking in before the interval runs out, nothing happens. If you miss the deadline, the box is released to your recipients. The full concept is explained in our guide to the dead man's switch.

It helps to be clear about what this is not. A dead man's switch is not an SOS tool. It does not track your GPS position, it does not alert emergency services, and it does not notice that you have stopped moving. It responds to silence: it reacts when your interval expires, which might be hours or days after something went wrong. Safety apps and satellite messengers are built for the moment something happens; a dead man's switch is built for the days after, when your family needs documents, contacts and access rather than coordinates. The last section of this guide covers how to pair them.

What should go in a travel box?

Think of the box as a briefing for the person who will have to act on your behalf from thousands of miles away. They need to know where you are, who to call, and how to reach the money and accounts that will pay for whatever happens next. Keep each item short and practical.

• Your itinerary

  Flights, trains, and the name and address of each place you are staying, with dates and booking references. A rough itinerary is far better than none.

• Travel insurance details

  Insurer name, policy number, the 24-hour emergency assistance phone number, and the name on the policy. Insurers usually need the policy number before they will open a case, and the assistance line is the number your family will actually call.

• A scan of your passport

  A clear photo or PDF of the photo page, plus any visa pages that matter. If your passport is lost or stolen, a copy speeds up the replacement, and your family may need the number to help from home.

• Embassy and consulate contacts

  Your country's embassy or nearest consulate in each place you will be, plus the local emergency number, which differs by country.

• Phone and laptop passcodes

  The passcode to your phone and laptop, and the password for your main email account. Email is the recovery route for almost everything else, so a trusted person who can read it can handle most of the rest. Our guide to passwords after death explains how to decide which credentials to include.

• Bank and card contacts

  Which bank and which cards you are carrying, and the numbers to call to freeze them. You do not need to include card numbers themselves; the bank can find those.

• Who to call, in order

  A short list: the person who should coordinate, a backup if they cannot be reached, a local friend or host if you have one, and your employer if someone needs to be told. Write a line of context next to each name.

How do I choose the check-in interval for a trip?

The interval is a trade-off. A short interval means your family hears sooner, but also means more reminders and a higher chance of a false alarm when you lose signal. For most trips, something between two days and a week works well.

Start from your connectivity. If you will have a phone signal most days, a daily or two-day interval is realistic. If your route includes long stretches with no coverage, such as a multi-day trek or a sailing passage, set the interval longer than the longest gap you expect, and add a margin; see our page on what happens after a missed check-in.

Remember airplane days. A long-haul flight with a layover can keep you offline for most of a day. If your interval is daily, check in at the airport before boarding, and consider setting it to two days around travel days.

Reminders take most of the guesswork out of this. In PostMortem, reminders arrive by email and push at roughly 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% of the interval, so with a weekly interval you would hear from the app from about day four onwards. If you receive the first reminder and have signal, check in then rather than waiting.

What should I do before I leave?

Set the switch up at least a few days before departure, not at the gate. You want time to test it and to tell your recipients what to expect.

• Build the box

  Add the itinerary, insurance details, passport scan, embassy contacts, passcodes, bank contacts and your call list. Keep the names of files and messages clear so the reader can find things quickly.

• Choose recipients and tell them

  Pick at least one person who will reliably act, and ideally a second as backup. Tell them what they will receive and what to do if it arrives; a message they are expecting is not easy to ignore.

• Share the access key

  If your switch is end-to-end encrypted, your recipients need a key to open the box. In PostMortem that key is on an access key card, a QR-style image you share with each recipient in advance. Hand it over before you leave, and make sure they save it somewhere they will find it. You hold the only key, so if a card goes missing, issue a new one from the app while you are at home.

• Run a test

  Send yourself a test release so you know exactly what a recipient sees, including the decryption step. In PostMortem the test box runs on a one-hour interval and is addressed to your own email, so you can see the whole flow in about an hour.

• Keep a copy of the essentials elsewhere

  The box is for your family. You also need your insurance number and embassy contacts for yourself, so keep a copy in your own phone and on paper in your bag.

How do I check in while travelling?

In PostMortem checking in is one tap in the app, and that single tap resets every active box you have. Reminders arrive by email and push, so even if you have muted notifications you will see a nudge in your inbox.

A few habits make this easy. Tie the check-in to something you already do, such as the first coffee of the day. When you know you are about to go offline, check in just before, so the full interval is available to you. If your plans change, update the box, and if the next leg is more remote than the last, lengthen the interval before you set off.

How does PostMortem help solo travellers?

PostMortem is a free iOS and Android app built around exactly this idea: message boxes that release to the people you choose if you stop checking in. For a trip, you create a box, add up to three text messages (your itinerary, your call list and a note), store credentials such as your phone passcode and email login, attach up to five files of up to 20 MB each (a passport scan as an image or PDF, your insurance certificate), and add one or more recipients by name and email.

The check-in interval can be hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or custom from one hour up to twelve months, so you can pick something that fits your connectivity and change it between legs. Checking in is one tap in the app that resets every active box at once.

On release, each recipient gets an email with a link to a recipient page. Messages, passwords, file names and file contents are encrypted on your phone (AES-256) before upload and decrypted in the recipient's browser using the key on the access key card you shared with them; the box name, recipient addresses and check-in schedule stay readable so reminders and delivery work. Recipients can download a PDF of the contents and a ZIP of the files, and anyone who has not opened the box gets a reminder every 14 days, up to 12 times. You can read more on our security page and in how it works.

How do I pair it with a real safety app and a travel insurer?

A dead man's switch is the last layer, not the first. For the moment something goes wrong, use a safety app that shares your live location with a trusted contact, or a satellite messenger where there is no coverage, and test it before you rely on it.

Your travel insurer is the other half of the picture. Most policies include a 24-hour assistance line that can arrange medical care and repatriation. That line only helps if someone knows to call it, which is why the policy number and assistance number belong in your travel box in plain, obvious form. If your insurer lets you name an emergency contact, name the same person who will receive your box.

Put together, the layers look like this: a safety app or satellite device for the hours after an incident, your insurer's assistance line for the days after, and a dead man's switch so that the right person at home has the information to make those calls even if you cannot. For a comparison of switch tools, see our overview of dead man's switch apps.

Frequently asked questions

• Is a dead man's switch a replacement for a travel safety app?

  No. A safety app or satellite messenger is for the moment something happens and can share your location or send an SOS. A dead man's switch only reacts after you miss a check-in, which could be days later, and it delivers information rather than raising an alarm. Use both for different jobs.

• What happens if I lose signal and miss a check-in by accident?

  The box releases exactly when you set it, after four reminders, which is the point of the switch: it responds to silence. That is why the interval should be longer than the longest gap in connectivity you expect, with a margin. If a release was a false alarm, delete the box and tell your recipients promptly that you are fine.

• How long should the check-in interval be for a two-week trip?

  With regular connectivity, two or three days balances early warning against false alarms. If your route includes remote stretches, set the interval longer than the longest expected gap.

• Can I check in from a different phone or from email?

  In PostMortem the check-in is the one-tap button in the app. Reminders arrive by email and push, but the check-in itself is done in the app, so keep the app on the phone you travel with. If you sign in on a new device, you can check in from there.

• Does my family need anything in advance to open the box?

  In PostMortem, yes. Content is end-to-end encrypted and each recipient needs the access key card you shared with them beforehand to decrypt it in their browser. Share the card before you leave and confirm they have saved it; you hold the only key, and you can issue a new card from the app whenever you need to.

• What do I do with the box when I get home?

  Either lengthen the interval to monthly and keep it as the start of a longer-term plan, or delete the box. Do not leave a short travel interval running after the trip, because the box will release as you set it if you stop checking in.