
Google Maps will let you share your location with friends and family - JumpCrisscross
https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/22/google-maps-now-lets-you-share-your-location-with-friends-and-family-for-a-specific-period-of-time/
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jaimex2
Can't help but roll my eyes.

Moved from Google Maps (Latitude) to Google Plus (Android only) to Google
Maps.

It wasn't broken, it did a great job and you could access it from the browser.
It also gave interesting stats including how far you had traveled and how far
to go to get to the moon ( I only got half way there :( ).

~~~
poglet
It used to work fine for Google Plus iPhone users, until the app was updated
to remove the feature. I have now changed to Glympse for iPhone/Android
comparability.

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sundvor
Great. Because it's not like we've been using Google Plus for ages to track
our whereabouts. ;) And before that, Latitude.

But wait, there's competition - we also have their Trusted Contacts, which
features similar functionality.

~~~
joecool1029
For real, I was using Latitude years ago to allow family to track me on long
trips.

I never used the 'Find My Friends' crap on Apple but it was the same deal from
what I gather.

~~~
sundvor
This is frustrating... Latitude was great and easy to find. Then of course
they had to go and retire it, true Google style.

In Plus, the functionality is hidden away behind their myriad tab panes (they
have the bottom one, and an additional vertical behind a hamburger - it's on
the latter) - but it works just fine. I've got a bunch of friends there and we
all enjoying seeing each other's whereabouts. My wife could however never
remember where to find it, and got me onto Life360.. (which has some
interesting extra bits including arrival and departure notifications).

The functionality probably always belonged in Maps. What will be interesting
is whether they restrict the access like in Trusted Contacts or allow an
unfettered list like in Plus / Latitude.

~~~
sundvor
Just got the update here too. I have had Locations removed from G+, but added
in Maps.

I have to define my sharing again.

I'm sharing my locations with family in a country that hasn't received the new
Maps. Brilliant.

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Jedd
What I really want is a low-impact, low-risk way of knowing where someone _who
is happy that I can do this_ actually is. My typical use case is working out
if my wife is driving home, or at the gym etc -- where SMS/IM won't get a
response, and a phone call would be intrusive. I don't want constant sends
from the remote device, rather than ability to trigger a pull of current geo.

That is - low values of intrusion, negligible battery usage, relatively low
exploit surface.

Glympse[1]is handy for ad hoc notifications - I use it sometimes to give
family an idea of my time of arrival. But it also requires me to activate it,
and runs for (IIRC) at most two hours. And by golly it sucks up battery.

Cerberus[2] could do this, but it's not the primary use case, and the diddling
around that's required is messy - plus, massively intrusive given the feature
set (remote wipe, camera & audio recording, etc).

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glympse.an...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glympse.android.glympse)

[2]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lsdroid.ce...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lsdroid.cerberus)

~~~
toomuchtodo
It's a damn shame Google hasn't solved this yet, because with my iPhone, it's
as easy as "share location with contact", and I'm presented with "24 hours" or
"indefinitely". And it just works. There are even geobounding alerts
available.

~~~
chrisfosterelli
Google released Trusted Contacts [0] a while ago that essentially works like
how the OP wants. You can one-time request a contact's location and (unless
they block it) it will share it after a timeout. It also allows temporary
sharing and has last-known location for if your battery dies.

[0]:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.emergencyassist&hl=en)

~~~
Jedd
Thanks for the recommendation.

First time I'd read the description it looked like the recipient of the
request had the option to grant / deny - which kind of defeated the purpose.
Re-reading it looks like there must be some kind of time-out feature, where it
will default to a response? Anyway - will give it a go.

~~~
int_19h
Yes, that's exactly how it works. It asks first, but if there's no response in
a while (and you're on their list of trusted contacts), then it defaults to
allow.

~~~
Jedd
Okay -- we played with this tonight -- and it's not fit for purpose.

There's a 5-minute delay, with a screen-on alert for the duration at the
b-end, before you can get a geo-location response back.

If the 5-minute delay was configurable (I want it immediately), and the pop-up
was a notification (sys-tray rather than full screen / break -screen saver)
then it'd be a contender.

As it is, it's less useful than sending an SMS.

~~~
unprepare
Whats your use case for needing to know someones location and you must know
within 5 minutes? or is the objection more about the full screen popup(i.e. if
they are at the gym, does the request interrupt their music listening?)

~~~
Jedd
Use case is essentially that there are times when I'll make a quick decision
based upon where my wife is. I _could_ be more organised and use Trusted
Contacts 5 minutes before I want to know the answer, but I'm typically not.

Thinking commute -- train then long walk home -- if convenient I'd rather
share a lift than walk. Not the best example as I really should walk, but
nonetheless.

With the gym scenario -- I know the days of week, and rough time, she'll be
there, so not the best. In that case it's not the full screen pop-up that's
the problem, just the hard-coded 5 minute delay.

Better example: early evenings, I'd like to know if she's working late or
driving home. Without requiring that I interrupt her. If I SMS and she's
driving, she has to break the law to respond. If I call (or SMS) and she's
still working, that's disruptive. If I use Trusted Contacts and she's still
working, also disruptive.

I'd never really thought about this stuff before the Google Maps article, and
some of the discussion here -- it feels like my use case isn't _that_ uncommon
a thing. I may look at some of those family / kid-tracker applications, though
last time I reviewed the field there they felt a bit clunky and overly
intrusive.

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mikeyouse
My immediate family all share locations via Apple's contacts, painless and
very useful. I like the ability to share for an hour or a day with other
contacts too, makes meeting friends much easier whenever there's a crowd. The
downfall is that it only works with iPhones but for a lot of people, that's
good enough.

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akandiah
I've been doing this for years with Glympse. I can't believe it took Google
this long to bring around this functionality.

~~~
jstandard
In what situations do you typically use Glympse?

~~~
pmontra
I'm another person but I do use Glympse Express, a version made only for
sharing the position. I use it to show friends where I am on the way of
meeting them. No more messages about being late or on time. I usually share
position with whatsapp. I didn't know it had a share position feature but it's
OK to compartmentalize information between different vendors. I'll keep using
Glympse.

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creaghpatr
Your friends and family and google

~~~
ssambros
Doesn't google know already if you are using the maps?

~~~
chrisper
It already knows if you are using Android. Assuming you didn't turn off
location history. I left it turned on because: a) Google finds out where I am
in many ways and b) it actually is more than just for diagnosis, so it
provides me better results etc.

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skeletonjelly
> There’s even a new maps app designed specifically for people following each
> others’ cars on long road trips.

What app would this be?

Classic Google taking an existing feature, rip it out, and put it back into
another app with Minimum Viable Product functionality, and slowly restore it
to parity

~~~
justboxing
I can see a very valid (and very useful) use case for parents to track their
kids when they are out with friends, or in a field trip. Hopefully less
missing children.

~~~
probably_wrong
Ah, to be old...

When non-smart phones and GPS for the general public arrived in my country,
there was a discussion among the lines of "now that it's possible to track
your kids' position, would you do it?". The general consensus seemed to be
"no, that would be a violation of their privacy, and it would imply that I
don't trust them".

20 years later, and it's a feature in all phones. I guess _that_ point is
finally settled.

~~~
int_19h
Was that the consensus among techies, or the general public?

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muppetman
We use life360 for this. I can see where my wife is, I can know when she
arrives home safely. She gets a notification when I leave work so she knows
I'm on my way home to help with the kids.

~~~
ams6110
So glad I grew up before any of this was possible.

~~~
ghaff
I have mixed feelings about a lot of this.

For younger children, it's hard to object. But the general idea that you might
give general access to your location info to a family member and that not
doing so could become an issue feels... bothersome.

In a different vein, as someone who grew up pre-cell phones, I'm a bit
bothered by the idea that you should always be reachable. That said, as
satellite trackers/SMS/emergency beacon devices become more affordable I do
start to ask myself if something like this isn't prudent on a relatively
remote solo trip.

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jumasheff
Google Maps is not new in this game, but, imho, "GeoSlavery"[0] problem gets
more serious as tech develops in general. [0][PDF]
[http://www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_4103_...](http://www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_4103_f07/docs/DobsonFisher03.pdf)

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jstandard
I'm curious, for those that do use a location-sharing type feature (or app
like Glympse), what is the appeal of doing so? In which situations do you
typically share?

~~~
GuiA
I share location with a few very close friends - for those who live in other
cities, just cause it's fun. For those who live in the same city as me,
because it enables serendipity ("oh hey i'm near your house and i see you're
home, let's grab tea if you have time!").

I've also shared location with significant others in the past just cause it
makes everyday coordination and organization better ("oh she hasn't left work
yet, i'll hold off on cooking dinner")

This of course implies that a) you have nothing to "hide" from one another,
and that b) you be mature about it (eg don't be upset if your friend is home
but doesn't reply to your text/says they're busy), but these are things i
value in my personal relations anyway.

~~~
jstandard
Is that through an always on location-sharing service? Or something you'd do
at a specific moment or situation (e.g. I'm headed somewhere to hangout, I'll
turn on location sharing with some friends I know to increase chances of
serendipity)

~~~
GuiA
Always on through Find My Friends.

------
nthcolumn
She wanted to stalk me so I decided to show her some latitude.

