About DEV.B
DEV.B stands for Disaster Emergency Virtual Beacon. It is a free app that lets communities warn each other about sudden local disasters, even when phone networks are down.
About DEV.B
In villages and low-connectivity areas, people often see a flash flood, landslide or fire before any official system does. DEV.B turns that local knowledge into a warning: one person reports, people nearby confirm, and the alert travels from phone to phone.
DEV.B is an independent project. It is currently in testing, ahead of a first community pilot.
Mission
To give every community, however remote, a few more minutes of warning, using only the phones people already carry. We follow three principles: warn, don't watch (no names, no tracking); usable by everyone (no reading required, many languages); and honest about limits (a community tool that complements official warnings, never replaces them).
Where we operate
DEV.B is not yet live anywhere. The app is designed for use worldwide, with 250 countries and territories and 30 languages to choose from. We are preparing a first pilot with one community and its local disaster management office.
Team
DEV.B is built by a small independent team. If you work in disaster risk reduction, public policy or mobile networking and want to help, get in touch.
Volunteers
We especially need native speakers to check translations. Most of our 30 languages are first drafts, and these are safety messages, so accuracy matters. We also welcome help with community testing and drills. Write to contact@devdotb.com and tell us your language or your area.
Careers
We are not hiring at the moment. Volunteers are very welcome.
Press
For interviews and information, write to contact@devdotb.com.
Brand assets
- Name: DEV.B (Disaster Emergency Virtual Beacon). Write it in capitals with the dot.
- Mark: a small red square followed by "DEV.B".
- Colours: beacon red #B3001B, ink #0B0F14, white #FFFFFF.
- Typefaces: IBM Plex Serif for headings, IBM Plex Sans for text.
Please don't change the name or colours, or suggest that DEV.B is an official government service.
Blog
Coming soon: updates from testing and the first pilot.
Open source
DEV.B's source code is not public yet. We learned from the open protocol design of the Bitchat project, and we credit the open-source libraries we use in the app.
Status
DEV.B has no central servers that can go down: alerts travel from phone to phone. Current status: in testing, not yet published in the App Store or Google Play.
Contact
General questions, problems, security issues and partnerships: contact@devdotb.com
To report a problem with the app, please tell us your phone model, the app language and what happened.