WEBVTT - Track Your Family on a Map Using Smartphone Apps

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<v Speaker 1>I'm richdmuro and this is rich on Tech Daily. It's

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<v Speaker 1>one of the most popular questions I get. How do

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<v Speaker 1>I track my family members on a map? Well, parents

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<v Speaker 1>want that peace of mind of seeing where their kids are.

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<v Speaker 1>Plus there's lots of ways to do this because basically,

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<v Speaker 1>we're all carrying a GPS tracking device with us every

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<v Speaker 1>single day, and that is our cell phone. So let

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<v Speaker 1>me run down some of the apps that can do this.

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<v Speaker 1>The biggest and most popular family locator app out there

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<v Speaker 1>is called Life three sixty and what's great about this

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<v Speaker 1>is that it's built with this specific location sharing for

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<v Speaker 1>families and friends in mind. They say they handle more

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<v Speaker 1>than a billion location requests every single day. This is

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<v Speaker 1>the most full featured app of the bunch, and it

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<v Speaker 1>works for iOS and Android. So you do have to

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<v Speaker 1>create a new account, but once you do that, you

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<v Speaker 1>can add friends and family to your circle and when

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<v Speaker 1>you open the app, you're going to see the last

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<v Speaker 1>location of everyone in your circle, and this is something

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<v Speaker 1>I love. You also see the remaining battery percentage, right

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<v Speaker 1>gus the current battery percentage on their phone, so that's

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<v Speaker 1>really nice. You can also see a history of where

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<v Speaker 1>someone's been and you can get alerts if they leave

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<v Speaker 1>or arrive a location you specify, like school or work.

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<v Speaker 1>Plus you can set a radius, so if your kids

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<v Speaker 1>at school, you can say, look, if they wander a

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<v Speaker 1>thousand feet away from school, I'll get an alert. So

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<v Speaker 1>all the basic functionality of Life three sixty is free.

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<v Speaker 1>But keep in mind this is a business. They do

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<v Speaker 1>have to make money, so they are going to push

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<v Speaker 1>you to that paid subscription that runs about three dollars

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<v Speaker 1>a month, and that's going to give you extended location history,

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<v Speaker 1>which is thirty days of location plus unlimited alerts. So

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<v Speaker 1>this is probably the app i'd start with. Just keep

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<v Speaker 1>in mind that eventually you're probably gonna succumb to that

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<v Speaker 1>subscription fee and pay for that because you want to

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<v Speaker 1>get that extra functionality, but you don't have to you

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<v Speaker 1>to use it all right. Next up, Find my Friends.

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<v Speaker 1>This is a basic location sharing app that's built right

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<v Speaker 1>into the iPhone. If you search on your iPhone for

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<v Speaker 1>an app called Find my Friends, you're gonna find it.

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<v Speaker 1>It's basically like find my iPhone, but instead of locating

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<v Speaker 1>your devices, you get to see your family or friends

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<v Speaker 1>on a map. The biggest downside of this app is

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<v Speaker 1>that it only works with iOS, so before you kind

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<v Speaker 1>of sign up with this, you have to make sure

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<v Speaker 1>that everyone in your circle has an iPhone or some

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<v Speaker 1>sort of iOS device, but you probably want it to

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<v Speaker 1>be an iPhone because it's got that cellular connection. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>this app is pretty bare bones, but it does everything

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<v Speaker 1>you need. Once you have people in your group, you

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<v Speaker 1>can see their location on a map, and you can

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<v Speaker 1>share your location in several ways, always or just when

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<v Speaker 1>you want to send or request your current location so

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<v Speaker 1>someone can say, hey, can I see where you are

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<v Speaker 1>right now? You get a little bit of notification on

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<v Speaker 1>your phone, you approve it send your location. There's also

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<v Speaker 1>a functionality to send a notification when you leave or

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<v Speaker 1>arrive somewhere, and this can be one time or recurring.

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<v Speaker 1>So let's say you want a notification every time your

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<v Speaker 1>kid arrives to school. You can set that up and

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<v Speaker 1>get that every single day. And that's pretty cool. So

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<v Speaker 1>there's Find my Friends on iOS now. Next up is

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<v Speaker 1>basically Google's version of Find my Friends. It's called Google

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<v Speaker 1>Trusted con but this works on iPhone and Android, and

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<v Speaker 1>this is sort of Google's solution to location sharing, but

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<v Speaker 1>it has some other features built in The main thing

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<v Speaker 1>here is that you can sign up pretty easily if

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<v Speaker 1>you already have a Google account or a Gmail account,

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<v Speaker 1>so that way you don't have to keep track of

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<v Speaker 1>another password. You can download the app for iPhone or Android.

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<v Speaker 1>Then you sign in and you invite some other folks

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<v Speaker 1>that you want to exchange your location with. Then you

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<v Speaker 1>can choose from several levels of sharing. So there's a

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<v Speaker 1>basic level that just shows you if a member has

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<v Speaker 1>been online recently, and then you can go all the

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<v Speaker 1>way up to always sharing, which is really cool because

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<v Speaker 1>once you set this up, anytime you open up Google Maps,

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<v Speaker 1>you can see exactly where your friends are right on

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<v Speaker 1>the map, which is kind of fun. And you kind

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<v Speaker 1>of set this one and forget about it. You don't

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<v Speaker 1>really need to think about it much, and that's it.

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<v Speaker 1>Once it's set up, it's done. And if you're all

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<v Speaker 1>about Google, I think you're really gonna like this one. Now.

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<v Speaker 1>There's also another functionality of Google Trusted Contacts where you

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<v Speaker 1>can send a message out to all of the people

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<v Speaker 1>in your circle. If you feel onsafe, this will send

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<v Speaker 1>your real time location for a specified amount of time.

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<v Speaker 1>So how to use this. Let's say you're walking home

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<v Speaker 1>late at night and you just want you know, your

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<v Speaker 1>loved one, or maybe you're taking an uber home. Whatever

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<v Speaker 1>it is, you say, hey, let me alert my friends.

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<v Speaker 1>They're gonna get a message that says, hey, your friend

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<v Speaker 1>has alerted you. Here's a real time location and you

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<v Speaker 1>can sort of track them until they're home safely. So

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<v Speaker 1>the main thing about these apps, you're probably wondering, how

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<v Speaker 1>is this going to impact my battery? So all these

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<v Speaker 1>apps are pretty optimized so that they take advantage of

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<v Speaker 1>location services in the background, so they're not going to

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<v Speaker 1>straight up drain your battery. But if you're doing a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of real time sharing, that's when you're gonna find

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<v Speaker 1>the biggest impact on your battery percentage. So but otherwise, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>these apps, I mean, like Life three sixty, they built

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<v Speaker 1>their business upon this. If every time you know, someone

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<v Speaker 1>installed this app it was just straight up draining their battery,

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<v Speaker 1>they would not have a very good business. So believe me,

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<v Speaker 1>the battery functionality is front and center. Thanks so much

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<v Speaker 1>for listening to rich on Tech Daily. Hopefully subscribe to

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<v Speaker 1>I'll talk to you next time.