Partner and I (both using Galaxies on Android 12+) have found Google Maps location sharing invaluable for knowing where we were - for instance in a job that can't be contacted when working so could look at when we finish work to know they are on the way home, passing shops so could message to get extra shopping etc. Our child recently started a new school some way from home so we gave him a new (Moto) phone (Android 14). He has to take several buses to and from school and wants us to see where he is when traveling around a big city in case he misses a stop or gets lost etc.
Until fairly recently we could get reliable and regular updates of our positions. But not any more. I can check my partner's phone and it will say "offline" or last location was 30 minutes ago. Yet I could have just spoken with her on the phone. This is with Maps app battery set to be always running, more precise location, access to wifi and mobile data. Even with us in different locations and both of us keeping the Maps app open on our phones we're not getting regular and accurate position updates. This in a major city with good to excellent data signal coverage.
Another example - the other day I went to location A, partner went (on foot) to location B about 3km away in the opposite direction. When I got home I checked her location - it was showing as active and presently in location C, in a place several km further away than B that neither of us would ever have cause to visit. Literally five minutes later she was back at home with me. Had her phone been stolen and taken somewhere? No, she was carrying it! We looked at her location timeline history on her phone - it claimed that she had left home and gone straight to location A where I had just been, then she came home again. No mention of B where she actually was, or C where neither of us could have been.
TLDR - despite trying to optimize settings on all phones to allow frequent position updates, we are finding none of our phones is giving useful location information as they are at best showing where someone was half an hour ago, so tracking a kid on the bus if they get lost for instance is a waste of time. And random locations can occasionally pop up that we very obviously haven't been to.
I don't want to pay for a third party family tracking app unless it's significantly more reliable than Google Maps, and as they presumably use the same phone sensors and settings why would they be any better? And please no lectures about not tracking family members - we're all mature enough to have already consented as a family to knowing where we are for each other's safety and benefit so we actually want family location tracking to work.
Any suggestions as to what we're doing wrong?
Until fairly recently we could get reliable and regular updates of our positions. But not any more. I can check my partner's phone and it will say "offline" or last location was 30 minutes ago. Yet I could have just spoken with her on the phone. This is with Maps app battery set to be always running, more precise location, access to wifi and mobile data. Even with us in different locations and both of us keeping the Maps app open on our phones we're not getting regular and accurate position updates. This in a major city with good to excellent data signal coverage.
Another example - the other day I went to location A, partner went (on foot) to location B about 3km away in the opposite direction. When I got home I checked her location - it was showing as active and presently in location C, in a place several km further away than B that neither of us would ever have cause to visit. Literally five minutes later she was back at home with me. Had her phone been stolen and taken somewhere? No, she was carrying it! We looked at her location timeline history on her phone - it claimed that she had left home and gone straight to location A where I had just been, then she came home again. No mention of B where she actually was, or C where neither of us could have been.
TLDR - despite trying to optimize settings on all phones to allow frequent position updates, we are finding none of our phones is giving useful location information as they are at best showing where someone was half an hour ago, so tracking a kid on the bus if they get lost for instance is a waste of time. And random locations can occasionally pop up that we very obviously haven't been to.
I don't want to pay for a third party family tracking app unless it's significantly more reliable than Google Maps, and as they presumably use the same phone sensors and settings why would they be any better? And please no lectures about not tracking family members - we're all mature enough to have already consented as a family to knowing where we are for each other's safety and benefit so we actually want family location tracking to work.
Any suggestions as to what we're doing wrong?
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