Simsi Mobile

The Simsi Mobile app is not publicly searchable on the iOS App Store. To download the app, log into your account on the Simsi RTMDx web app and go to your profile. If your account has App Access, there will be a panel with a link to download the app and the information you need to authenticate yourself after installing it on your device.

As of December 2022, the app is only available for iOS. We anticipate launching on Android before March 2023.

Once the app is installed on your device, you should open it to begin onboarding. You will see a series of screens explaining what the app does and be prompted to accept the Simsi Mobile EULA. 

Once accepted, you will be asked to enter your credentials. The Simsi Mobile app does not accept usernames; you must use your email address. In addition, you will need to find your App Code in the “Your Profile” page of the Simsi RTMDx web app.

Alternatively, you can click the “Login with Temporary QR Code” in the web app to generate a QR code that can be scanned in the mobile app by clicking the Camera button on the top right of the login screen. This feature generates a temporary authentication token valid for several minutes, alleviating the need to type your password into the app. Simsi stores passwords in a hashed format and does not know the plain text content. This feature does not transmit your password in plain text.

The “App Code” is a short string of random characters (or “token”) unique to your account in a particular Simsi region. It allows our infrastructure to correctly identify your account.

There are several reasons you may see this:

• You did not use the correct email to log in
• Your App Code was entered incorrectly
• Your account is locked
• An unexpected App Code caching issue occurred

We recommend logging in using the QR code feature because it prevents unintentional typos. Alternatively, you may try clicking the “Reset App Code” in the Simsi RTMDx web app to refresh the token and then try logging in again.

If your account was locked due to multiple incorrect password attempts, you will not be able to log into the mobile app until you unlock your account. When an account is locked, you will receive an email notifying you and it will provide a mechanism for unlocking the account yourself. If you have any trouble, you can also contact support@simsi.com for assistance.

Once successfully logged in, you will be presented with the available analyses for your account. Tapping on an analysis will open a map view that presents the analysis content and the analyst risk narrative for your present location.

Available Analyses:

The analyses available in the mobile app depend on the type of your account.

• If you are an Analyst User, meaning you have the ability to create, run, and update analyses on the Simsi RTMDx web app, then you will only see analyses which you have personally distributed.
• If you are a Mobile App User, meaning you do not have the ability to manage analyses in the web app, then you will see analyses distributed by all other Analyst User’s within your organization.

If you have feedback about this sharing mechanism, please reach out to julius@simsi.com or inquiries@simsi.com; we’re very interested in hearing your thoughts.  

If you are an Analyst User, then you have access to the Simsi RTMDx web app for creating, running, and updating analyses. Once App Access is enabled for your account, you will have an additional tab to the right of “Report” called “Risk Narratives”.

This tab contains a checkbox which marks an analysis for distribution. It also allows you to enter risk narratives for each relevant risk factor that was found by the analysis. When the mobile app is focused on a location that is influenced by any of those risk factors, the user will be presented with your narrative. This allows for the distribution of information from the analyst to users in the field in real-time, with context and location specific information being visually prioritized to the mobile app user. Risk factors found to be more influential will be seen above others with less relevance at that location.

General Risk Narrative notes are available in the mobile app using the “i” button at the top right of the analysis map view. This is useful for providing context, information, and tasks that are not specific to any of the individual risk factors, such as information about the parameters and scope of the analysis.

Users in the Simsi Mobile app are managed by Simsi administrators. You can contact support@simsi.com with a list of names and email addresses and our team will onboard your additional users by sending them a form to gather information and then inviting them to the Simsi RTMDx web app as an App User. From the web app, they will have access to the mobile app download link and their unique App Code for logging in.

In the future, we will allow Analyst Users to self-manage this onboarding flow.

When you tap on an analysis to view it on the map, we overlay a table with the relevant risk factors as well as the risk narratives from your analyst(s).

If the risk factor is influencing the risk of the map location (marked by the green circle in the center of the map), then it will display with the red “Contributing Here” label. Otherwise, it will read “General Risk”, meaning it is contributing the overall risk of the analysis, at other locations, but is not present at the present map location.

Tapping on a risk factor will place markers of the known locations of the selected risk factor on the map. A red pin will appear next to the risk factor name to designate that it is being shown on the map. Tapping it again will hide the markers.

We do not show a heat map of the risk or exposure on the map itself. The Simsi Mobile app is a tool primarily designed for prevention programming, information distribution, and thoughtful collaboration in the field and the heat maps are not designed for that in the context of the mobile app. All maps are available for display and further analysis in the Simsi RTMDx web app by Analyst Users.

The short answer is: not yet.

However, it is very high on our priority list. And as we work on developing the features necessary for App Users to communicate back to the Analyst Users, we’re interested in hearing from everyone about how they wish these features work.

The initial iteration of this feature will include the ability to send text and photos.

If you have feedback, please reach out to julius@simsi.com or inquiries@simsi.com and we would love to chat.

A Risk Narrative is a data-informed hypothesis about the relationship between risk factors and the topic issue being studied. Simsi’s software provides contextual information about crime incidents by diagnosing their spatial patterns. This is used by analysts to describe why and how the environmental features are contributing to the locations of crime incidents, either singularly or in concert with other relevant features of the landscape.

The human element is important in developing Risk Narratives, and analysts are encouraged to develop relationships with other stakeholders with local knowledge about the risk factors and the areas they are found so that intervention strategies can be developed with consensus and care.

The systematic coordination of multiple stakeholders for crime prevention, and the development and iteration on Risk Narratives, is referred to as Data-Informed Community Engagement (DICE). Simsi offers a product called the DICE Mentorship Program for implementing this evidence-based strategy in new jurisdictions. If you’re interested please reach out to inquiries@simsi.com for more information.

This simply means the Analyst who distributed the analysis has not yet entered a Risk Narrative on the Simsi RTMDx web app for that risk factor.

Analyses update in real-time. Once the Analyst User has entered the Risk Narrative, it will appear for you in the app when viewing that risk factor.

If you have trouble, try returning to the analyses list in the app then opening the analysis again. Additionally, logging out then back in again will help clear any potential caching issues. If this does not fix the problem, please reach out to julius@simsi.com so we can learn more and try to fix the problem without needing such workarounds.