An app providing people a panic button on their smartphones has been released in the name of Witness app.

The main feature of Witness is to provide a panic button to customers when they feel that they are potentially in danger or in risky situations. By using the app, people can inform their emergency contacts about their location in times of trouble, giving them significant help when in danger.

In addition, the app will also record your location, camera and microphone activity and it will stream it to your emergency contacts using safety features such as fading your screen to black while the process is going on. Witness app can be compared to Twitter's Periscope with an added safety features that are useful in dangerous situations.

Witness App, developed by Marinos Bernitsas, debuted at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015 Hackathon where it won the grand prize and it has earned rave reviews. Bernitsas thought that he should take advantage of smart phone's camera, microphone and GPS and use it for people's safety.

At first, Bernitsas thought of it for personal safety reasons, but later became aware of the bigger picture when mobile phone videos showing police brutality made it to the headlines. The app developer thought it would be better if you could record it yourself instead of relying on a witness. This made sense to judges at Hackathon because of several recorded police brutality cases similar to the video of an officer arresting teens at a pool party in Texas.

Bernitsas claimed that some users have already expressed their satisfaction to the Witness app. "I heard back from so many people and I was so touched by their stories and how Witness could make an impact in their lives," the app developer said.

To use witness, fill-up your emergency contacts with the names of your relatives, friends and their contact number. You can stream your actual situation to emergency contacts by tapping the app icon, it will send phone calls and text messages to your friends with a link to follow your situation real-time.

The links that the Witness app will send to your designated recipients, will give them access to the real-time video of your situation, your location as you move and view a full log file related to the incident. After its debut at Hackathon, the Witness app has been polished and added some features such as cleaner layout for emergency contacts, support for emails, address book integration, setup screen and protection against accidental activation.

Witness app for IOS is free to download on iTunes.