A live location tracker is only as live as its last update.
Live is the most abused word in this category. On this map it means something you can read off the screen: every position carries the minute it arrived, so you never have to guess whether you are looking at now or an hour ago.
Start trackingWhat "live" honestly means here
It does not mean a continuous stream. No phone could carry one through a day, and any live location tracker that implies otherwise is describing something you will not experience. It means the app reports at intervals — more often while someone is moving, less often while they sit still — and that the card tells you when the last report arrived.
- A moving phone reports often enough to follow a journey
- A still phone reports rarely, which is why an older reading is not a fault
- Every card carries the age of its reading, never a bare dot
- When nothing has arrived, the card says so instead of showing the last known spot as current
A real time location tracker has a battery bill
Background location costs power on every platform, and the cost is the reason honest apps report at intervals rather than continuously. This one makes the trade visible instead of hiding it: when someone in the circle drops low, everyone is told, usually before the dot stops moving and the worrying starts.
The three ways live goes wrong
A phone that is switched off, one with no signal, and one where location permission was withdrawn all look the same from the outside: nothing new arrives. What separates a real-time location tracker worth trusting from one that is not is what it does in those three minutes.
- Off or out of signal — the card holds the time of the last reading and stops there
- Permission withdrawn — the person stops appearing, and the circle can see that they are not reporting
- Sharing paused — a Paused sharing label, never a stale position dressed up as current
Live for everyone, or it is not live
Everyone in the circle sees the same map with the same freshness stamps, your own row included. There is no view that refreshes faster for whoever set the circle up. If you can watch someone update in real time, they can watch you the same way, and they can see that you can.
Where this sits next to the rest
This page is about how fresh the map is. For what a location tracker does in general — places, history, alerts, and what each of them shows — the location tracker page covers the ground. For getting someone onto the map in the first place, start at the phone number tracker page.
Questions about how live it is
How many seconds between updates?
There is no fixed number, and an app that quotes one is quoting a best case. Updates come more often while a phone moves and less often while it rests. What you can rely on is the timestamp on every card.
Does the map update while the app is closed?
On the installed app, yes, in the background. In a browser tab it updates while the tab is open, which is enough for someone who will not install anything.
Why does someone show as five minutes old when they are next to me?
Because their phone has not needed to report since. A still phone saves battery by reporting less. The reading is old, not wrong.
Can I get an alert instead of watching the map?
Yes — that is what arrival alerts are for. Save a place once and the circle is told when someone reaches it or leaves, which is usually what people actually wanted from watching.
Is there a live location tracker app that works on both platforms?
This one. Android, iPhone and the browser join the same circle and read the same map, with the same timestamps on every card.