During a major disaster, many people turn to social networks to check in on friends or loved ones to make sure they're safe. Facebook knows that, and today has announced Safety Check — a new way to let your friends know you're safe, and to check in on those that may be in a disaster area.
With Safety Check, you'll receive a notification if you're in the area of a natural disaster asking if you're safe. If you (or one of your friends on your behalf) check "I'm Safe, your feed will be updated accordingly so anyone checking in on you will know your status. You can then see what friends in the area have also marked themselves as safe, and you'll receive notifications for them as well. Everything is aggregated in the Safety Check section so you can see all the latest updates for the local disaster.
It's a great new feature from Facebook, albeit one that we hope you should never have to use.
Source: Facebook
