CipherAML
In developmentCall for help.
Be found.
CipherAML sends your location to emergency services when you call or text for help. On Android, without Google.
What the call taker sees
Without AML. Somewhere in a cell tower’s range, which can be kilometres wide.
With CipherAML. A point on the map, often within a few metres.
Why it exists
Being found shouldn’t
depend on Google.
Advanced Mobile Location is an open standard. Phones in more than 30 countries use it to send their location when someone calls for help.
On Android, Google builds it into Play services and keeps it closed. Remove Play services for your privacy, and an emergency call still connects. Your location never arrives. Nobody tells you.
A safety feature built on a public standard belongs to every phone. And code that reads your location, even with location off, should be code you can read. So CipherOS built its own.
No Google needed.
No Play services and no proprietary location backend. Nothing to sign in to.
Readable, line by line.
What it sends, when, and to whom. All of it is in the open.
Speaks the standard.
Built to ETSI TS 103 625, so emergency centres need nothing new.
How it works
Quietly, while
you talk.
There is nothing to open and nothing to press. CipherAML works in the background, from the first second of the call.
- 1
You call or text for help.
Any emergency number, from the dialer or the lock screen. Even straight after a restart.
- 2
Your phone finds you.
GPS and Wi-Fi together, for up to 20 seconds. Even with location switched off.
- 3
Help gets your location.
By SMS or HTTPS, in the format emergency centres already use. No copy stays on your phone.
The call always comes first. Emergency calls go through exactly the same, with or without CipherAML.
Privacy
Your location goes to help.
Nowhere else.
Only during an emergency call or text. Only to the emergency service for the country you are in. Never to CipherOS.
Where your location goes
- The emergency service
- Only during an emergency call or text
- CipherOS
- Never
- Anyone else
- Never
- A copy kept on your phone
- None
- Analytics or update checks
- None
What it sends
An AML text message
A"ML=1;lt=+54.76397;lg=-0.18305;rd=50;top=20130717141935;lc=90;pm=W;si=234300000000000;ei=356708041746734;mcc=234;mnc=30;ml=128
- lt, lg
- Where you are
- rd=50
- Within 50 metres
- top
- When the fix was taken
- lc=90
- 90% sure you are in that circle
- pm=W
- Found using Wi-Fi
- si, ei, mcc, mnc
- Just enough to match it to your call
Turn it off any time in Settings, then Location, then Location services. Emergency calls work the same either way.
Where it works
Country by country.
Never a guess.
Governments don’t publish where AML messages go. CipherAML switches a country on only when an official source says where to send.
United Kingdom
SMS to 999
Slovakia
SMS to 112
Lithuania
SMS to 112
Australia
SMS to 1262612626
Croatia
SMS to 112
Greece
SMS to 112
Moldova
SMS to 112
Germany
Endpoint not public yet
India
Endpoint not public yet
Where it is
In development.
CipherAML works end to end and follows the standard. But no emergency authority has certified it, and it hasn’t been tested with a live emergency centre. It can fail.
Always say where you are.
CipherAML adds your location to the call, but it can’t promise that location will arrive, or that it will be exact. Whenever you can, tell the call taker where you are.
For ROM builders
One line.
Any ROM.
Built for CipherOS, and free for any Android ROM without Google. Add it to your product makefile, and it’s in.
$(call inherit-product, packages/apps/CipherAML/cipheraml.mk)
- Works on
- Android 14 and later
- Google Play services
- Not needed
- Location
- GPS, plus network location where there is one
- Sends
- SMS or HTTPS, to ETSI TS 103 625
- Countries
- 7 switched on, 2 pending
- Licence
- CipherOS License 2.0
- Status
- In development
CipherAML is provided as is, without warranty of any kind; the CipherOS License 2.0 sets out the terms. It is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Google, ETSI or any emergency service. Google Play is a trademark of Google LLC.