Got in trouble the other night for going out to play ’til quite late and my wife assumed I (and my riding mate, presumably) had been eaten by a new forest pony

I’d like to have something that lets her know where I am (android) but also can show where she is (travels quite a bit and timing meals etc for when she gets in). Neither ‘phone has 3g data permanently on, and neither really accessible to “approve” a request for location so would need to be possible to pre-approve a ping that arrives via txt or something similar

(my phone has lookout loaded but that’s more for theft/loss isn’t it, and might lock the phone once she’s set it as missing ?)

Does anybody do this ?
what app/system

Google used to support it natively with “Latitude”, I think that’s been superseded by, er, something now though.

iPhones have ‘Find My Friends’ where you can opt to allow chosen people to see where you are at any given time, and likewise they can choose to let you see where they are.

It works wonderfully. Means I can have dinner ready for my wife, etc – or when on holiday with friends we can can keep track of who’s where and so on. It’s really helpful IMO.

http://www.apple.com/uk/icloud/features/find-my-friends.html

The below would appear to be an android equivalent, can’t personally vouch for it though…

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsp.android.friendlocator&hl=en

‘Find My iPhone’ will just geolocate, and show the location on a map. You can then lock it and erase it, should you so desire, or have it make a noise. Just locating a phone causes no loss of data or anything like that.
I tried it the other day, just for fun, and it even showed my Mac Mini!

thanks markie – does the iphone one work without wifi/3gdata ? (so just on sms or whatever)

does it murder the battery or just activate every x minutes ?

cz – seems that findmyiphone can only run (be viewed by) on apple devices – is that right?

(There’s a thing called 360-somethin or something 360 (ah, life360) that looked great but seems not to work without a data stream (won’t accept a UK number for sms))

thanks markie – does the iphone one work without wifi/3gdata ? (so just on sms or whatever)

does it murder the battery or just activate every x minutes ?

Works even with one or both phones in ropey non-3G reception areas, and I haven’t noticed any decrease in battery life since I started using it, FWIW.

Basically, in order to locate the other person I have to open the app and then it spends up to 15 seconds or so locating them and then showing them on a map.

I can also set alerts, for example when they leave a given location or arrive at a set location.

cz – seems that findmyiphone can only run (be viewed by) on apple devices – is that right?

Yes, that’s why it’s called ‘Find My iPhone’… 😉
It can’t track an Android phone, any more than an equivalent app on Android would track and find an iPhone.
Different OS, from competing manufacturers. The same would be true with Windows Phone and Android, or Android and Blackberry. I wouldn’t expect otherwise.

That friend finder for android looks useful.
I often ride in remote areas alone, leaving Mrs MTG with only a vague description of where I’m going.
If ever I don’t return home when expected, she could at least look to see if my phone is still moving (I’m OK and still riding)or if it’s been stationary for a while (I’ve crashed and am unconscious).

What if there’s no signal though ?
Does it just report the target as unavailable, or does it give the last known location ?

Edit;
Oh yeah, can you track via PC as well. Mrs MTG hasn’t got a smart phone.

I’ll install it anyway and give it a go, I just wondered if anyone can answer my questions first.

Coogles, android device manager is the new thing but only works via wifi AFAICS, and would be a pain for my wife to log on to as it’d have to be my google account

thanks for caring though 🙂

Yes, that’s why it’s called ‘Find My iPhone’…
It can’t track an Android phone, any more than an equivalent app on Android would track and find an iPhone.

Ah, no, but I was hoping it could be viewed via a webpage rahter than another iphone running the app (so I could track my wife (and daughter’s) phone using my pc or android)

If you GPS track your rides anyway then Runkeeper is good, it has a live mode where people can view your track in realtime. Whilst Runkeeper is free the live mode is “elite” only which is $20 a year.

Scaredypants, from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsp.android.friendlocator&hl=en

Locate friends on the Find My Friends App with any phone. The App works with iPhones, Android Phones, BlackBerry phones, and even non-Smartphones.

Which may be what you are looking for.

chvck – maybe I could route it through strava and she could watch the KoMs fall as I go 😆

haha, well you could track with runkeeper and then just export it and upload to strava.

Graham – yes, was wondering about that one, ta. Looks a lot like the life360 that requires a data connection but hopefully not related too closely

update – graham, that friend locator is life 360 by another name and I’m sure it’ll refuse any UK phone numbers

Search for gps car tracker. I’ve got one. You put a sim card in it, then just phone it and it responds with a text containing it’s position.

Look for an App called Glympse.

iphones can be tracked from a webpage

go to icloud

then click on find my iphone and enter the iphone users credentials

Android phones using newish software can be also be tracked from a webpage

devicemanager

either option is baked into the os , no extra apps are required

I use Endomondo. It’s a free ap and you can track live so if you are not back around the time you said then Mrs S can look on the pc and see you are still moving. I tell Mrs beard not to worry unless the speed shoots up to over 60 mph and heads straight to the hospital! 😉

Search for gps car tracker. I’ve got one. You put a sim card in it, then just phone it and it responds with a text containing it’s position.

You can make an Android phone do this with a custom profile in Tasker.

If you GPS track your rides anyway then Runkeeper is good…

Is this similar to Endomondo ?
I use a Garmin anyway to save my rides and upload them to PC.
Continual satellite tracking seems to use too much battery power on a phone.

Search for gps car tracker. I’ve got one. You put a sim card in it…

It’s another device to remember to charge and carry though. Better to use the phone that you’ve already got if you can.

…friend locator is life 360 by another name and I’m sure it’ll refuse any UK phone numbers…

Installed it and now able to track myself and Mrs MTG Junior from the PC.
Also able to track Junior from my phone.
It’s USA based, so you need to prefix the phone number with +44

Is this similar to Endomondo ?

It sure is!

Continual satellite tracking seems to use too much battery power on a phone.

Got a 10 hour ride tracked on my Nexus 4 recently! Life does vary between phones though and I charge mine up every night so there’s no risk me forgetting to charge etc…

The Android Viewranger app has a feature called ‘Buddy Beacon’ that allows you to do this. It also gives you OS maps so is also pretty useful while out riding.

Skinnybeard, where on the endomondo website do you get the live tracking?

Can you set it to see just the person you are tracking, don’t want the wife/parents getting worried cos “I’ve” gone to the wrong house for the night!!!

@gordonb.
On the Enomondo website, top left there is a button for “people out now”. Click that and it brings up a map of the world with every Endo user that has their device set to automatic upload and who are using the ap at that time. Very handy. 😉