Binghamton University – located in Binghamton, N.Y., and part of the State University of New York system – has launched its new SafeBing mobile app that enables students, staff, faculty, parents, and family members to receive real-time emergency alerts and access a suite of campus safety resources directly from their smartphones.
The university publicized the new app in a June 25 feature on the school’s news site.
SafeBing serves as a centralized hub for emergency communication and safety support. The app delivers push notifications for critical alerts, mirroring the University’s B-Alert system so that users – including those off-campus – can stay informed the moment a message is issued.
Beyond alerts, SafeBing offers practical tools and services aimed at keeping the campus community safe, the university said.
These include access to emergency procedures, anonymous tip submission, weather updates, campus maps, and directories for police, medical, and residential services. The app also features on-demand services like Safe Ride, which connects users to university staff for a secure ride home, and Friend Walk, which allows trusted contacts to follow a user’s GPS location in real time during a walk.
“It allows us to very easily and quickly make updates and edit information, and that will certainly keep it accurate and more timely to what’s happening,” said David Hubeny, executive director of the university’s Office of Emergency Management.
The app also features a built-in 911 panic button that transmits the user’s GPS location to University Police or, if the user is off campus, to the nearest emergency dispatch center. To ensure privacy, location tracking is immediately disabled once the call ends.
“We only see it when they actively call 911; as soon as that call’s disconnected, the GPS location is no longer visible to us,” Hubeny explained.
Users will also benefit from time-sensitive updates, such as detour information, parking alerts, or temporary disruptions like elevator outages.
“If we had an extended road closure with detours, the app would be a good way to communicate that,” said Hubeny. “We could not just provide a push notification, but we could also give some maps through the app and show people where those detours are.”
“The information in the app will change and evolve over time,” Hubeny said, adding, “But it will also include these temporary things that will provide event-specific details.”
