Live GPS tracking

jaworski86

Hi everybody :!:
I am going for an off road ride of my life in 3 weeks Five days and 312 miles of riding and wild camping in north Scotland. My question - is there any app that I could use to allow my friends to live track me via GPS without internet connection? I know that there is loads of apps like map my ride etc that I can use to record my ride on the device using gps but can somebody else track me at the same time?
Real Time GPS Tracker? Find My Friends!? Anybody use one of them?
Any advice would be much appreciated!

markhewitt1978

You will need an internet connection of some sort to upload your position. The likes of the Endomondo app and newer Garmins such as the 510 will do it but they need a mobile connection to upload position information. In the highlands mobile data signals are scarce.

declan1

Garmin Livetrack (app) can be viewed real-time online by other people. It's a subscription service (unless you have an edge 510/810) but I don't know how much it costs unfortunately.

http://www8.garmin.com/livetrack/

jaworski86

This is exactly what I thought Unfortunately that garmin app needs connection as well. Can I set up the app to update location position automatically when it finds connection without my intervention? So I do not have to check for connection every 15 minutes or loose a chance to update it because I missed a connection spot.

declan1

Sorry, no idea what the app's capable of as I haven't tried it. I'd love to get an Edge 510 or 810 to get that functionality though.

iLukeKendall

I'm guessing from your post you have an iPhone? There are a couple of options;

Find My Friends
This will allow your friends (who also have an iPhone with the app) to track your location on a map. It does require an internet connection, and it's not always real-time - it updates every minute or so, so it won't always be pin point accurate. It will however show you as being 'Location Unavailable' if you're not in a signal area, but will show again as soon as you have a signal. The advantage with this, is it will only seek your location when one of your followers on the app requests to see where you are, therefore saving battery life.

Garmin Edge with Garmin Connect
If you have a Garmin Edge 510 or 810 (I think it's only those two) then you can connect them through the Garmin Connect app and enable LiveTrack. This will show a realtime positions (ie. the dot will move with you updated every second), however it does require an internet connection to upload your position. It also requires bluetooth to communicate with your phone which will likely result in the battery draining faster.

I think there are probably other app solutions out there, but they will all require an internet connection if you want people to be able to track you. If you just want to track your rides for future reference, then an app like Strava or MapMyRide etc would be suitable.