SilentScream

Inspiration

SilentScream was inspired by real situations where people can’t openly call for help—harassment, stalking, and domestic violence. In these moments, obvious SOS apps can be noticed, messages can be monitored, and the victim may be too close to the abuser to act safely.

What it does

SilentScream looks and works like a normal calculator, but it hides a complete safety system. With a secret PIN, the user can silently trigger an emergency alert that:

sends an SMS to trusted contacts, shares location when available, records audio evidence, saves a secure emergency log, and notifies an authority/responder dashboard.

How we built it

SilentScream was built as a stealth safety app that looks like a real calculator but can send help instantly.

Core build:

Calculator UI disguise (Jetpack Compose) Secret PIN trigger to activate emergency silently SMS alerts to trusted contacts (SmsManager) Live location sharing (FusedLocationProviderClient) Audio evidence recording (MediaRecorder) Encrypted emergency logs (Room + SQLCipher) Offline sync retry (WorkManager) Authority portal to view alerts and mark responded

Challenges we ran into

Challenges we ran into Making the app feel 100% like a real calculator while running emergency actions in the background. Handling permissions safely (SMS, location, microphone) without breaking the stealth experience. Reliable offline behavior: saving logs locally and retrying sync later. Ensuring security and privacy with encrypted storage and evidence handling. Coordinating user-side alerts with the authority portal in real time.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A stealth trigger flow that doesn’t look suspicious. End-to-end demo: trigger → SMS proof → logs/evidence → authority receives → mark responded. Encrypted local database for sensitive data. Clean architecture with Compose + MVVM + Use Cases that’s easy to scale.

What we learned

Practical Android security basics: encrypted storage, permissions, and sensitive data handling. Building reliable background tasks with WorkManager. Integrating location, SMS, and audio recording into one consistent flow. Designing for real users under stress: simple UI, fast actions, and clear outputs

What's next for SilentScream

Next, we plan to improve SilentScream with more accurate real-time location sharing, stronger evidence handling (longer audio and optional media), and safer controls like false-alarm verification and quick cancel. We also want to add encrypted cloud backup, better trusted-contact alerts beyond SMS, multi-language support, and more powerful authority tools like map view, case assignment, and response tracking.

Built With

• fusedlocationproviderclient
• hilt
• kotlin
• mediarecorder
• okhttp
• room2.6.1
• smsmanager
• sqlcipher
• workmanager