What is Shield Message?

Shield Message is a digital deadman switch that ensures your important messages reach your loved ones when you can't deliver them yourself.

How Does It Work?

The concept is simple but powerful. You create messages intended for specific recipients—family members, friends, business partners, or anyone who needs to receive critical information from you. Each message has a countdown timer that you set based on how long you typically go without checking in.

Every time you check in to Shield Message, all timers on your active messages reset. As long as you check in regularly, your messages remain safely stored and undelivered. But if something prevents you from checking in—an accident, medical emergency, or any situation that keeps you away—your messages automatically send when their timers expire.

Why Use Shield Message?

Life is unpredictable. Important information shouldn't be lost because you couldn't deliver it personally. Whether it's location of important documents, financial instructions, heartfelt messages to loved ones, or business continuity information, Shield Message ensures these critical communications reach the right people at the right time.

Unlike traditional estate planning tools that require legal processes and can take months to execute, Shield Message delivers your messages automatically when you need them delivered. It's immediate, reliable, and under your complete control.

Common Use Cases

• Document Locations: Inform family members where to find important documents, safe deposit boxes, or stored credentials if you're incapacitated.
• Final Messages: Share heartfelt words with loved ones that you want them to receive if something happens to you.
• Business Continuity: Provide employees or partners with contact information and general instructions to keep operations running.
• Medical Information: Alert family members about health conditions or medication details they need to know.
• Digital Legacy Guidance: Direct loved ones to where you've stored account information securely, such as in a password manager or physical safe.

Free vs. Premium

Our free tier allows you to create up to 2 active Shield Messages with email delivery. This is perfect for getting started and protecting your most critical communications.

Premium subscribers get up to 10 active messages, MMS text delivery for redundancy, and our proprietary email template optimized for maximum deliverability. The dual delivery method (email + text) provides peace of mind that your message will reach its destination even if one method fails. Please Note: MMS text delivery is only available for phone numbers with the “+1” international country code.

Privacy and Security

Your messages are stored securely and are only sent when their timers expire. We use industry-standard encryption and security practices to protect your information. You maintain complete control over your messages and can edit or delete them at any time.

We never read your messages or share your information with third parties. Your trust is our top priority.

Ensuring Delivery: Avoiding Spam Filters

Email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook use sophisticated spam filters to protect their users. To ensure your Shield Messages reach their intended recipients, follow these best practices:

• Use Clear, Direct Subject Lines: Avoid excessive capitalization, multiple exclamation marks, or spam trigger words like “urgent,” “act now,” or “free.” Keep subjects professional and descriptive.
• Write Natural Message Content: Avoid heavy formatting, excessive links, or promotional language. Write your messages as you would write a normal email to a friend or family member.
• Verify Recipient Email Address and Name: Double-check that email addresses are correct and active. When an email is addressed to the person's real name, email providers often flag it as important.
• Consider Whitelisting: Ask your recipients to add contact@shieldmessage.com to their email contacts or safe sender list. This significantly improves delivery odds.
• Upgrade to Premium: Our Premium plan includes a proprietary email template with embedded metadata that's optimized for inbox delivery. Plus, MMS text delivery provides a backup channel if email fails.
• Test Your Messages: Send yourself a test message first to see how it appears in your inbox and make adjustments if needed.

Remember, even with best practices, no service can guarantee 100% inbox delivery due to constantly changing email provider algorithms. This is why our Premium plan includes dual delivery (email + text) for maximum reliability.