Just launched yesterday and once installed, you can assign “trusted” status to one or as many of your contacts as you like. Once you do, that person can add you back to share their location with you as well, or to request your location at any time. Then, if they request your location, you have the option to share it or decline, but if you do nothing, your location is automatically shared with them after five minutes. The goal here is to give your loved ones or emergency contacts the ability to find out where you are even if you’re incapacitated or unable to get to or use your phone.
The app also allows you to broadcast your location to a trusted contact, or receive location updates from a trusted contact, in real time. When you share, they’ll get a notification that you’re sharing your location with them, and vice versa. Tap it to fire up Google Maps on your phone and watch their dot move around the map. So if you’re headed home from work and you want your spouse at home to be able to see where you are, you can share it with them and they can watch in real time as you make your way home. Which can eliminate those messages about picking up something from the store, real-time sharing only works when you want it to you can share your location in real time whenever you want and then turn it back off to stop sharing your location.
No location data is shared with anyone unless they’re explicitly added as a trusted contact, the other person accepts that responsibility, and then also accepts location shares and share requests. The app doesn’t run in the background on your phone, either. It sits in the app tray like any other, and when sharing—or when someone’s sharing with you—it keeps a persistent notification in the notifications shade.
Download Trusted Contacts today from the Play Store.
Click here if you’re an iOS user to get notified when the iOS app is available.
