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[Closed] PSA? Google Maps is now a spot tracker

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[url= http://www.techradar.com/news/you-can-now-share-your-location-in-real-time-with-google-maps ]"You can now share your location in real-time with Google Maps"[/url]

Although I guess it would want a phone signal in addition to GPS to send your position back to Google HQ.


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 2:12 pm
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And there's why it's not a Spot tracker ๐Ÿ˜†


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 2:14 pm
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Not fully rolled out yet. I can't get it, can anyone here?


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 2:22 pm
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I had a maps update overnight but can't see the functionality as yet.


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 2:40 pm
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nope


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 2:41 pm
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And there's why it's not a Spot tracker

Crafty plug:

I'm selling an Inreach tracker/messenger on ebay, like a Spot, but you can send texts from it to friends/relatives/mountain rescue via the iridium network as well as pair it with tracklogs and send SOS signals.


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 2:46 pm
 Pyro
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You've been able to do pretty much the same thing with ViewRanger's 'Buddy beacon' feature for ages, but it has the same limitation - you need data connectivity to transmit.


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 2:52 pm
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You've been able to share location through Google+ for a few years now. (Signal-dependent, obviously)


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 4:03 pm
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The google+ share function got a major upgrade and release as "Trusted Contacts" in google play a few months back.

It's a lower power consumption spot tracker, as well as emergency beacon and friend finder. You can request location of a Tursted Contact, and if they dont turn it down the phone will send a marker back to the requester after 5 mins. Handy to see if someone is en route to get an ETA but theyre not answering their phone while driving for example.

for live spot tracking my colleague and I use glympse. Its very handy if we are converging on a site and exploring the area/nearest bar.

The function described in the OPs link doesnt appear to be available to me yet on Android Maps.


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 4:16 pm
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You've been able to share location through Google+ for a few years now. (Signal-dependent, obviously)

Not impressed with it in G+ - it was much worse than before they hoiked it out of maps - half hour lag and more on the transmission of location. Don't know whether it got better.


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 4:20 pm
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So its find friends for non-iphone users?
Or re-release of google latitude? <which was ace and sadly missed.


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 4:20 pm
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latitude - that was it!

The function described in the OPs link doesnt appear to be available to me yet on Android Maps.

Me neither.


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 4:22 pm
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for live spot tracking my colleague and I use glympse
another glympse user here as Its fast, accurate and doesn't use too much data. Will have a nose at the google thing though


 
Posted : 23/03/2017 4:24 pm