Welcome to the Factal personal edition, a free lightweight version of the Factal app. If we can’t answer your question below, please email us at support@factal.com. If your company is a Factal member, email us at members@factal.com.

Overview

What is this app?

The personal edition of the Factal app notifies you whenever a critical breaking news event occurs in proximity to places you care about, anywhere in the world. For example, you can add your kid’s school, favorite vacation spot and your own location as you travel. Factal focuses on global events that could pose a safety and security risk, like severe weather, shootings, conflict, wildfires and more. Factal users are active in more than 120 countries.

What’s the difference between the personal and enterprise editions?

This is the personal edition, which is focused on individuals. The enterprise edition is designed for teams who are responsible for their organization’s safety. It features full global coverage at a much higher volume, unlimited locations, custom feeds and notifications, live chat and more. If your company is a Factal member and you’re looking for the enterprise edition, please contact your company’s Factal admin or reach out to us at members@factal.com. If you’re interested in learning more about an enterprise membership, please contact us at sales@factal.com.

Who is behind this app?

Factal is a breaking news and risk intelligence company that helps the world’s largest organizations protect people, avoid disruptions and expedite disaster relief. We combine experienced journalists with AI to detect, verify and assess incidents as they occur in real time. Nearly 300 humanitarian aid and disaster relief teams rely on Factal, including most of the world’s Red Cross organizations. Factal was founded on a public service mission and adheres to a code of ethics. Here’s our backstory.

How do you decide what to publish?

Factal editors are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We monitor social media, global news feeds, weather data and other sources to detect critical events that could pose an immediate risk. This includes severe weather, wildfires, earthquakes, power outages, shootings, conflict, civil unrest, transportation disruptions and much more.

Features

How do you divide up the alerts?

There are three ways. The “near me” tab shows breaking news and safety alerts within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of your device's location. The “my places” tab will list the latest alerts near any places you set up in Factal. The “world” tab displays the most important global breaking news, as selected by our editors.

How can I set up my "near me" feed?

To see breaking news within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of your location, you’ll need to share your device location. (Factal cares about your privacy, and we do not share or sell this information with anyone. See Privacy below to learn more.) If you didn’t share your location when you first set up the app, visit your iPhone’s settings, select the Factal app, tap “location” and select either “while using the app” or “always.”

How can I set up my places?

You can add a maximum of three places in Factal. To add a place, type in an address or place name, such as “Space Needle.” You can select a custom name, icon and the news radius – the radius we use to determine which events are nearby – for each place. The radius can be from 1 to 10 miles (16 kilometers). For urban areas, use a smaller radius.

I don't see many alerts near my places?

When you first set up your places, it will only bring in the last 7 days of alerts. Since Factal focuses on larger critical events, rather than regular news stories, don't expect to see many alerts (especially outside major urban areas). Factal is designed as a set-it-and-forget-it alert service, rather than an app you read to catch up on the news.

How do I read and share an alert?

As a breaking news and safety app, Factal publishes short updates in real time with links to the original sources. Tap the red link to visit the source directly. In most cases, these stories and social media updates are written in the local language. You can also tap each Factal update to see the location on a map and share the story.

What's the difference between larger text and smaller text updates?

Updates that are displayed with larger text are written and verified by our editors. Smaller text updates are delivered on an automated basis and have not been independently verified. For example, we automatically publish USGS earthquakes, severe weather warnings and select social media posts.

Notifications

How do I turn on/off notifications?

For each of the feeds (near me, my places and world tabs), you’ll see a bell icon at the top. The nearby and places notifications are on by default, and the world news notifications are off by default.

How do I turn down the volume of notifications?

If the places you’ve added are triggering too many notifications, you can reduce the news radius. Visit the “my places” tab, select “edit” and you can turn down the radius for each place. A good rule of thumb is to set tighter radiuses for urban areas, wider radiuses for suburban and rural areas.

What’s the radius to trigger notifications near my location?

If you’ve turned on notifications in the "nearby" feed, you’ll be notified when we publish a news event within 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of your last known location. If you’ve set your location sharing to be "while using the app," it will use the location that was sent to Factal when you last opened the app. If it’s set to “always”, it will use your current location. (See Privacy below to see how we keep your location data private).

How do I change my device location setting from "while using" to "always" or vice versa?

Visit your iPhone’s settings, select the Factal app and tap "location."

Tipping

What is tipping?

If you see breaking news happening near your location, you can anonymously tip Factal editors and other users in your vicinity to help them stay safe. Tap the "tip" tab and select the best category that describes what you’re seeing. This could be police activity, fire, power outage or perhaps you’re hearing lots of sirens. Fill out the optional note and tap the submit button to share the tip along with your approximate location.

What happens when I send a tip?

It will be displayed anonymously in the “nearby” feed for other Factal users in your vicinity. Factal editors see all tips posted around the world, which helps our newsroom detect and verify incidents as they happen.

Is this tip shared with anyone else?

No. Factal does not share tipping data with any other party.

Privacy

How do you protect my location data?

Factal values our users’ trust, and we take privacy and security very seriously. If you choose to share your device’s location, we only save the last device location – not a history of locations, so we do not track your movement. Factal data is encrypted in transit and rest. We do not share or sell any location data with anyone. To learn more about how we protect your data, visit Factal’s privacy policy and security compliance.

My employer told me about this app. Are they tracking me?

No, we do not share your places, tips or location information with your employer or any other party.

Troubleshooting

I’m supposed to be using the enterprise edition, not the personal edition?

Log out of the personal edition and log in with your enterprise credentials. If you’re still unable to access it, please contact Factal member success at members@factal.com.

I don't see any updates near my location or my places?

We may not have published any new information in that area in the last few weeks. While Factal offers global coverage, some parts of the world lack data sources. More rural areas also have less coverage. If you see news happening nearby, feel free to tip our editors and other users nearby.

I’m not receiving “near me” notifications?

Make sure you’ve turned on notifications in your “near me” feed and opted into sharing location with Factal. To double check on iOS, visit “settings” and scroll down to find Factal. First, check “notifications” to ensure these settings are correct. Then check to see if “location” is set to “while using” (which will use that known location) or “always” (which will update your location as you move even if you’re not using the app.)

I see updates in the “near me” tab but I didn’t receive them as notifications?

We send “near me” notifications for breaking news events that are within 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of your last known location. The “near me” feed shows a broader area.

How do I delete my account?

Click on the settings button in the upper right-hand corner (looks like a face in a circle with a down arrow next to it). Scroll down to “delete account” and enter your password.

How do I report an issue or provide feedback?

Please email us at support@factal.com. We’d love to hear from you.