Tracking App for your Phone

[EddieWalker]

My wife and I have been thinking that we need a way to be able to find each other if there is an emergency. Might also need this for my parents as they get older too. The main reason for this is that she drives a long way to drop off and pick up our show dogs. If something happened along the way, it could be very difficult for me to know where she is at. Yesterday, she was on her way to Houston and she hit a very strong thunder storm. She called and said that it was so bad that she was turning around and coming home. The dog can stay in Houston another couple of days. When she got home, she said that there where several cars off of the road and in the ditches from the flooding from the heavy rain. It really got me to thinking that I wouldn't know where to look if she had a problem.

The other concern is that after I'm done working for the day, I often go to peoples houses to look at projects that they want to do, and sometimes those homes are out in the boonies. For piece of mind more then anything else, it would be good to know that somebody could find me, or I could find her.

Does anybody know of an App for their phone that they would recommend?

As a bonus, what about something that my parents could wear to keep track of them? Last month my dad decided to climb a fallen tree out in the woods and he fell off of it. He is 85 and doesn't realize it sometimes. He tore up his shoulder pretty bad, but was able to walk out on his own and then deny that it had happened, but complained about the pain in his shoulder. After arguing between the difference between slipping and falling, we finally got the truth out of him on what happened. He also has early stage of Alzheimer's and his doctor said that walking every day is one of the most effective ways to fight it. He walks every day and it's always been trouble free, but who knows when he will do something wacky again and not be able to walk away from it?

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[Wakey]

Medicare would likely provide a wireless pendant to be worn around the neck on a chain. My dad had one and it works anywhere which is an improvement on the ones I provided in the past.

What flavor phones do you and your wife have? Android / iPhone?

 

[blee03]

Yeah if you have iPhones you can share location using default apps installed on the phone.

Share your location in Find My on iPhone

In Find My on iPhone, share your location with friends and stop sharing at any time.

support.apple.com

There is a similar setup for android users as well

 

[Wakey]

2 of my brothers use that so my mom can follow their movement. What’s funny is when they are in Atlanta and they don’t have time to visit haha I love to needle them.

 

[Wakey]

My brother said he used Life360 to keep track of a teenager. That works across all platforms.

The Apple one is free and works well.

He’s a pilot and flies Internationally. He uploads pics from all over the world and we get notifications the moment he does.

It is so much nicer than putting all that on social media and the old folks love it.

 

[Alien]

I use the standard Apple phone locater and the Android one. The android one is quicker.
If you have a iPhone then consider the new Air Tag. It can be located anywhere in the world and when you get close to it you can pinpoint it with Bluetooth.

Buy AirTag

Attach AirTag to everyday items and easily keep track of them on iPhone. Personalise with text and emoji engraving. Buy 1 or 4 pack now at apple.com.

www.apple.com

 

[EddieWalker]

What flavor phones do you and your wife have? Android / iPhone?

She has Apple with AT&T, I have a Samsung with Verizon. One works in some places, where the other doesn't.

 

[MossRoad]

My wife, one of our children and I all have various iPhones. We recently shared our locations with each other. and now it works like a champ. We travel a lot and the kid travels a lot. Works very well.

 

[oosik]

I wonder - I'm very often in locations where there is ZERO cell phone service. Do any of these tracking software programs still function is locations such as this??? If not - is there something that does??

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm trying to do this with Google Maps. I sent her a request, but her I phone doesn't use Google maps, so she will have to add that and hopefully we will be able to figure it out.

 

[ponytug]

You might want to look into SPOT.

We use it when one of us is not at home, and the other is out in the woods. It can do breadcrumbs for tracking, as well as SOS messages that send location and a preprogrammed message, e.g. "I am injured send 911 help." or "My horse is in trouble, send a vet." It is a subscription service, but the peace of mind is huge, at least for me. The device is a little larger than a pack of cards, and needs some view of the sky, so we wear it as an arm or ankle band.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Cougsfan]

What did we do before we had all this ability to stay in touch with anyone at any time under any conditions? Some people view this as progress and a much needed convenience. I can see that at times , but there are other times when I wonder if it really is nothing more than an effort to address one's insecurities. Some days I am tempted to throw my cell phone in the river

 

[Alien]

Our iPad uses Bing maps and it is terrible. It is certainly not very accurate as Google is. Bing is nowhere near the resolution of Google either.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm pretty sure the google maps app for iPads and iPhones is free. I use it on my phone often.

 

[oosik]

Another thing - I wonder. If there is the need to know where somebody is - you have a cell phone. Just call them and ask. Why this secretive tracking system. Why the need to monitor somebodies every movement.

I know of nobody who needs to know where I am at any moment of the day or night. If it's so damn important - call me and if I think it's that critical - I'll tell you.

That's one of the reasons I leave my cell phone OFF if I happen to take it with me when I leave the house. I have the cell phone or the Emergency Button on the Taco Wagon if I need assistance.

 

[MossRoad]

Another thing - I wonder. If there is the need to know where somebody is - you have a cell phone. Just call them and ask. Why this secretive tracking system. Why the need to monitor somebodies every movement.

I know of nobody who needs to know where I am at any moment of the day or night. If it's so damn important - call me and if I think it's that critical - I'll tell you.

That's one of the reasons I leave my cell phone OFF if I happen to take it with me when I leave the house. I have the cell phone or the Emergency Button on the Taco Wagon if I need assistance.

Our kids and we travel by car a lot to each others' houses. It's a 5-6 hour drive to one, and 12.5 hours to the other. We allow each other to follow our locations. For one, it's nice to know how far they are from the house so we know when they're getting close, we can meet them at home, and likewise for them when we go to visit.

For another, in this day and age, if they were to get car trouble/abducted/car jacked/whatever, we might wonder why they're taking so long to get here, and could see their location and determine if something is wrong. If they veer from their highway route, we'd see that something is wrong.

My mother in-law will not get a smart phone. She's independent, lives alone, and likes to go for drives. She is active in several clubs, likes to take drives in the country, and likes to visit casinos in the area both alone and with friends (which she's started to do after a year and a half off due to covid). So we talked her into getting a life alert. She likes the idea of being able to contact someone IF there is a problem, and, likewise, we can have them locate her if there appears to be a problem. She's been religious about wearing it. It keeps her independent and she likes that.

It's kinda like carrying a gun. If you don't carry it all the time, it could be useless IF you need it.

If you don't have your location shared BEFORE you need someone to locate you, it could be too late to turn it on if you need it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Another thing - I wonder. If there is the need to know where somebody is - you have a cell phone. Just call them and ask. Why this secretive tracking system. Why the need to monitor somebodies every movement.

I know of nobody who needs to know where I am at any moment of the day or night. If it's so damn important - call me and if I think it's that critical - I'll tell you.

That's one of the reasons I leave my cell phone OFF if I happen to take it with me when I leave the house. I have the cell phone or the Emergency Button on the Taco Wagon if I need assistance.

My wife drives to Houston a couple times a month for dog shows, and she will also drive several hours to other locations for dog shows. If I do not hear from her, and she does not answer the phone, I want to know where to start looking.

As a Contractor,I get calls from people several times a week to come look at their houses. I don't know them and anything could happen on my way there. I could be anywhere, in any direction, from Tyler. What if I got into a wreck and nobody knew where to look?

I was out mowing this afternoon on our land. It's 68 acres of pasture, thick woods, 2 ponds and a creek. If I didn't come back for dinner, where would she go to find me? What if I was injured and unable to use my phone?

 

[gsganzer]

My family (myself, wife and kids) use the Apple phone app (Find My) that came embedded in the phone. It's handy for lots of things.

I travel quite I bit and sometimes my wife can't keep straight what state/city I'm in. She can look at the app and tell, she can also tell if I'm still traveling, or finally made it to my destination.

It also comes in handy when cooking dinner. We can get a lot of traffic near us, and when my wife picks up the kids from school, I can see how close she is to getting home, so I can put dinner out.

It also gives all of us a piece of mind that we can find each other if there's ever a problem. I do quite a bit of hunting and hiking with my kids and it's nice to know that someone can find where I'm at if necessary, especially if I'm incapacitated.

Sure, some of these things can be handled with a phone call. But I get annoyed getting a phone call, "Where are you?", when I'm about to pull in the driveway. This makes it simpler.

 

[mikester]

Apple, google, facebook, blah blah blah all track you 24x7 and sell that information to other businesses.

For your safety and security you are not allowed access to that information.

Every week or so I get an email from google "you let your wife track your phone. Are you sure you want to do this?" I NEVER get an email from google asking if I want them to track me. By the simple fact I turned on my phone the lawyers say I have already agreed to be spied on, monetized, and sold.

 

[Frankenkubota]

What did we do before we had all this ability to stay in touch with anyone at any time under any conditions? Some people view this as progress and a much needed convenience. I can see that at times , but there are other times when I wonder if it really is nothing more than an effort to address one's insecurities. Some days I am tempted to throw my cell phone in the river

i have come to the conclusion that EVERYTHING in life is a double edged sword.

Can't think of a thing that's not.