A Distracted Driving App to Prevent Accidents
By Craig Knapp on May 25, 2016

Despite increased awareness, one in every four crashes is the result of distracted driving. This could involve texting, talking on the phone, taking a photo, checking an email, finding a song to play or browsing through your social media feeds. With a smartphone capable of doing so much and with multitasking a part of our every day lives, it can be hard to resist the urge behind the wheel. That’s why we’ve found and tested out various apps that can help fight this problem.

Knapp & Roberts’ favorite? AT&T’s free DriveMode app. It’s available for both iPhone and Android users and works with any carrier. You do not have to have AT&T to get this app. This app seems to be the best compromise in preventing distracted driving. For instance, many people opt not to use these safety-driving apps because they don’t allow for any phone usage. AT&T makes certain exceptions.

For instance, you may connect to one navigation app of your choice such as Apple Maps, Google Maps, or Waze, one music app of choice such as Spotify, Apple Music, or Pandora, and allows for 5 contacts you may call while driving. At the same time, when the car is in motion at 15 mph or more, it disables social media usage and text messages, letting folks who text you know that you are driving and unable to respond. It also has a nice homepage where you can easily swipe to get in an out of drive mode, set a customize photo and caption, and still shows the time written largely at the top. Parents can also set the phone to text their phone to let you know when a teen has entered in and out of DriveMode (this feature is only available to AT&T subscribers, though).

Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon all have apps to prevent distracted driving, as well, but none are compatible with iPhone yet, only Android.

If you’re searching for something specifically for a teenager, there are two options we recommend. The first is SafeDrive, free on both Android and iPhone. This is a fun option for teens because it makes a game out of staying off your phone. Instead of preventing you from looking at your phone, it rewards you when you don’t. When you’re driving your car, a screen pops up on your phone showing how many points you’ve earned. The more you drive without looking at your phone, the more points you earn. However, if you touch your phone, all of your points vanish. The app has some options for cashing in those points, but the list isn’t very vast yet. Instead, we recommend setting up in-home rewards where your teen can cash in points for cash, a gift they’ve been wanting, or whatever works best for your teen.

The second option is tXt Blocker and shuts down a phone entirely when a teen is driving. It costs $7/month, but has some nice functionality that comes with it. First, parents can locate phones in real time, so you always know where your teen is. Using the map in the interface, you can set up “No-Cell Zones” to limit distractions at school or in the workplace. It also provides useful reports on driver behavior, including drive time, speeding and past location history. You can try this option for 30 days free now.