Live tracking advice please

RrogerD

Hi,

I apologise if this has been covered before but I am struggling to find info anywhere.

I am looking for a free, low data-usage, low battery-usage App for Android so that a) my wife can follow where I am on rides and b) we can keep an eye on young son out on his bike. Any advice on what is the most suitable out there please?

I currently use Strava (not Premium) on my Android to track my rides, churning away in the background; and use RideWithGPS as a navigating tool to give turn by turn directions, again from my pocket.
Rides are likely to be in excess of 6 to 10 hours per day (I am planning a long distance tour).

My wife does not need to see all of my performance stats etc. I don't need to see a map, or my track as I go.

How much data do the Apps transmit per hour, for example?

Much thanks... :-)

figbat

We are an Apple family and use Find my Friends for instantaneous tracking. It looks like this is available in the Android store too.

Secteur

figbat wrote:

We are an Apple family and use Find my Friends for instantaneous tracking. It looks like this is available in the Android store too.

Same here - I occasionally turn location services on in iCloud and set "share my location" to on, and this allowed specified people to check in on my location at any given time.

I haven't noticed that it uses any additional data? Not anything noticeable anyway, though I have a 16gb / month allowance... but I really think it's negligible.

AK_jnr

Life360. Cracking app. I was following my birds' run this morning on it.

FishFish

AK_jnr wrote:

Life360. Cracking app. I was following my birds' run this morning on it.

What - do you have an ostrich?

slowbike

The problem with Find my iPhone or Find Friends with Apple is that it only updates your location on request - which is fine most of the time - except if the phone you're trying to locate doesn't have signal - then you get the message that it is offline and can't be found - it doesn't give you the last known location/time before signal was lost...

What I think you need is an app that pushes your location to the internet - which other invited people can then view - my wife has a Garmin 810 - and the garmin app allows that to happen - I use Glympse on my phone (not regularly though) - which does the same thing.

Data usage will be negligable as all it is doing is pushing an identity & location reference to a server on the internet at set intervals - it won't be doing pictures/attachments etc etc ...

Of course, it can only work if you have a signal ...

RrogerD

Thanks guys.

Between posting and now I did find Gympse and have tried it out. A few teething problems but then ok.

What I did find though was that my Strava stopped mid ride, after 25 miles or so. It wouldn't find my location no matter what I tried. Gympse though did. It's the first time ever that I've had problems with Strava. I was wondering if there was some sort of conflict happening between the two such as something was filling the cache etc? I've now uninstalled it again.

Has anyone had experience with Strava Beacon? I'm not keen on forking out for the Premium only to find it 'aint much good.

Glympse was actually pretty good. It / they do rely on having a consistent phone signal otherwise you get 'jumping' in the tracking. Generally though it was pretty smooth.

Ironically, what I'd put together to stop the wife worrying had in fact created anxieties that previously didn't exist. When she saw the track stop she though that I'd had an accident! And, with the occasional inaccuracies in the positioning, she thought that I'd gone into the hedge! Crazy eh! :-)

dhungerf

I believe that "Road ID" has an app that does something similar.

Chrisj22

RrogerD wrote:

Hi,

I apologise if this has been covered before but I am struggling to find info anywhere.

I am looking for a free, low data-usage, low battery-usage App for Android so that a) my wife can follow where I am on rides and b) we can keep an eye on young son out on his bike. Any advice on what is the most suitable out there please?

I currently use Strava (not Premium) on my Android to track my rides, churning away in the background; and use RideWithGPS as a navigating tool to give turn by turn directions, again from my pocket.
Rides are likely to be in excess of 6 to 10 hours per day (I am planning a long distance tour).

My wife does not need to see all of my performance stats etc. I don't need to see a map, or my track as I go.

How much data do the Apps transmit per hour, for example?

Much thanks... :-)

This ridewithGPS you mention...

Maybe a daft question, but how do you know where you're going if your phone is in your pocket, and the app is on the phone?

Earphones?

47p2

Road ID does have an app, works great, my wife watches my every move

RrogerD

Hee hee, wives eh!

The RidewithGPS App, I have on my phone, in my pocket. It 'shouts' out every change of direction / junction on a pre-planned route that I've uploaded beforehand. You need to be sure to have the TCX file and not just the GPX. Less power hungry than having it bar mounted and displaying a map full-time. Obviously works on roads only rather than mountain trails etc. Or at least that what I've used it on.

Just tried out the Road ID and Life360 Apps. Drove out to the start point of the route. The latter wouldn't find location at all. Just churned over and over. Strava found it straightaway. I'll give it another go from home but doesn't bode well :-(

The RoadID App tracked my route ok but nothing appeared on the home pc web page. Not sure what's going on there. I've emailed the tech team. Will give it another shot later in the week etc and will update for anyone who's interested,

:-)

slowbike

re wives anxieties - yup - it's an issue of interpreting the data - I regularly use Find my iPhone when my wife goes off riding (yes she does know) - and interestingly I managed to correctly identify the point where someone in the group had an issue as they'd stopped for ~15minutes - it was a puncture.
Only once have I nearly headed out to "rescue" her - after a gym session her phone didn't move for another 3/4 hour afterwards - I was getting a bit concerned - no reply to my texts or answering the phone and she hadn't arrived home (its a 15 minute drive) - was just about to bundle 1yo son into something warmer for the car trip when she text - she'd been gassing for 45 minutes !! Didn't think to let me know ...

cgfw201

A few events I've done have used racedrone.net. Worked well for me.

Wonder if you can set up your tour as an event with them?

figbat

I quite like the feeling that someone, somewhere has my back if I don't move for any time. Also, it's not unknown for me to be approaching the house and see the garage door start to open, or the kids run down the road to greet me, or a freshly-brewed cuppa is waiting for me on arrival. Bicycle and motorbike.

drlodge

AK_jnr wrote:

Life360. Cracking app. I was following my birds' run this morning on it.

Life360 is what I use too.

RrogerD

figbat wrote:

I quite like the feeling that someone, somewhere has my back if I don't move for any time. Also, it's not unknown for me to be approaching the house and see the garage door start to open, or the kids run down the road to greet me, or a freshly-brewed cuppa is waiting for me on arrival. Bicycle and motorbike.

Nice!

Might drop a few hints like that myself... having the bath run etc. Good idea!

AK_jnr

^ haha. Thinking about it, that explains why there was a Tea ready for me when I got in from work last night. She had been checking up on me on the app.

topcattim

figbat wrote:

I quite like the feeling that someone, somewhere has my back if I don't move for any time. Also, it's not unknown for me to be approaching the house and see the garage door start to open, or the kids run down the road to greet me, or a freshly-brewed cuppa is waiting for me on arrival. Bicycle and motorbike.

Ooh, nice. I must suggest that to my wife as the reason I use LiveTrack.