Geosharing applications

15-20 years ago, from the very beginning of the penetration of mobile communication into our lives, the most frequent question that was asked at the beginning of a dialogue on a cell phone was this - “Where are you?”

It's amazing, but even after so much time, the question of the current the interlocutor's location remains the most popular, despite the fact that users have started to make less audio calls and use more instant messengers, using mostly text chat.

I offer Habr readers an overview of geosharing applications, where you can find out the current position of the interlocutor without the question “Where are you?”.



1. Real-Time GPS Tracker 2 Real-Time GPS Tracker



applicationallows you to mark yourself on Google Maps and share this information with your friends in real-time .

There is a function of geofense (when entering and exiting a certain zone, a notification occurs) and tracking (the traversed route).

There are also such interesting features as displaying the charge of the phone and outputting the sleeping phone to the active mode by sending SMS (allows you to save battery power - the geolocation mode on the phone is activated only after receiving the SMS).
Some features are paid.
The application works only on Android devices.

2. Glympse - Share GPS location



A very simple application - you send a link and the other side can see your position by simply clicking on the link - you do not need to install anything to view.

3. GPS Tracker by FollowMee



In addition to geosharing, there is a geofing function, notification of battery discharge, etc.
An interesting feature is that if there is no Internet, it accumulates tracking data and sends it to the server when the connection is restored.

4. Life360 Family Locator



Life360 is one of the leaders of geosharing applications.

Positioned as a family social network - in addition to geosharing there are chats in the application.
Users add each other to circles, adjust the location of schools, offices, houses, and when they appear in these places, members of such circles receive messages.

Some functions in the application are paid; for the year, the Life360 revenue is $ 20 million.

Unfortunately, due to Telegram blocking, since spring 2018 this application does not work on the territory of Russia.

5. Find My Friends



Find My Friends is Apple's geosharing application.
Accordingly, it works only on iOS devices.
One of the oldest geosharing applications - the first version appeared in October 2011.

6. Google. Google has a

geo-site function.
Used by Google Maps.
Works on Android and iOS.
With its help, you can make a geosternig in other programs.

7. GPS Phone Tracker



Standard application with geoshering functionality.
Of the features - storage tracking movements within 72 hours.
8. LocaToWeb - Real time GPS tracking



LocaToWeb is ideal for cycling, jogging, walking and all kinds of trips.
In addition to geosharing, the trip duration, distance, speed and altitude can be shown.

9. ZoeMob Family Locator



Of the interesting features of the ZoeMob Family Locator is a built-in instant messenger and the ability to see the speed of monitored users.
When speeding (for example, when moving children on a school bus), a message arrives.

10. GPS Tracks by Dmorneault.



Another paid geosharing application for iOS devices.
There is an accelerated reproduction of the saved movements.

11. Open GPS Tracker



Open GPS Tracker is another geoshing application, the code is laid out on GitHub .
Allows you to save tracks in GPX, KMZ formats and attach multimedia messages and text to them.

12. Hoverwatch



Hoverwatch is essentially a spyware application that allows you to track not only the geolocation of the monitored device, but also messages in instant messengers, SMS, etc., in invisible mode.
The cost is $ 19.99 per month.

13. Telegram and WhatsApp The





geosharing func- tion is the same in both messengers - you can fumble your geo online for 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours.
Apparently both use standard features from Google.

14. M1 Messenger



Completes the review of our M1 Messenger ( Android and iOS ).

In the messenger, there are two geosharing functions - Users side by side and Remote geo-location request.

Users nearby

In M1 Messenger, users cannot communicate with each other until one party has made a request to the other and the other has not approved.
But when you turn on the Users near function, you can see the distance to other users who also have this mode enabled at this moment.
You will not see exact coordinates, only distance.
When you turn off the function, you become invisible again.
It can be useful if you are somewhere in a foreign city or country and want to learn something.
Well, or for dating, if you see that the user is close with you, for example in one cafe:



Remote query of geo-coordinates

In any chat you can turn on the remote query of coordinates to the interlocutor and he can make a Request at any time and get a map with your location:



Small life hacking - if the user is not in online mode and you do not receive coordinates, then you can make an audio call to a few seconds to wake up the application and then make a geo query.
At the same time, on the other hand, the application can always be in sleep mode, thereby saving the battery.