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Google Maps Introduces New Location Sharing Feature With Real-Time Friend Tracking
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I don't want other users to trigger faster battery drain on my iPhone.
Besides, Google's next major Android update, codenamed Android O, will be limiting activities of background apps, such as location getting updates only few times each hour.
I use Find My Friends with my partner all the time so that I can have dinner on the table ready for her and the kids when they get home.
It definitely updates realtime. I can see her on the train rapidly moving over the map, or slowly walking across the park behind my house.
It's worked like this for several years.
Nevertheless am happy to see Google coming up with an alternative. FMF's granularity (or lack thereof) is a bit hard to control and this is an area I care about.
It definitely updates realtime. I can see her on the train rapidly moving over the map, or slowly walking across the park behind my house.
It's worked like this for several years.
Nevertheless am happy to see Google coming up with an alternative. FMF's granularity (or lack thereof) is a bit hard to control and this is an area I care about.
If by automated fresh you mean real time, because it would make things easier for me. As one example, if my wife is coming home with a bunch of bags and I want to help her in but I don't want to keep checking out thewait by the window or wait outside for her because it's cold, then real time would just be nice. Gotta' think outside the box a little. It would obviously be helpful to a bunch of people or they wouldnt bother making it. They arent going to build a tool soley for stalkers.
Hmm, Google Maps updated today but no new feature. Wonder if they have to deploy it server side still.
That's why I said (or meant) it would only fonstsbtly poll your location for friends when it was constantly polling your location anyway because you're actively using the app (e.g. Using it for directions). A friend should not be able to make it constantly poll when you're not using the app, and vice versa
Wrong. My wife and I use Find Friends all the time. I can see her dot moving on a map on my screen as she drives home, no refresh necessary.
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Sorry, but your statement that "EVERYONE has and uses Google Maps" is wildly innacurate. Hundreds of millions of people use Apple Maps, many whom never bother to install Google Maps.
They kind of have. Where do you think all the incident and traffic reports on Google maps come from. Waze
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Only because they were basically forced to in a way Apple have taken to people to high court for before. Ala Microsoft Internet explorer in the EU. So hypocritcal it makes me sick
It doesn't have the smooth tracking of, say, Uber; however, if somebody is driving down the highway it will periodically refresh every few seconds.
I'm constantly surprised as to how Google operates. I get that their a bunch of super innovative and extremely intellectual nerds and engineers, and have very interesting side projects; but they just never seem to integrate their various companies very well into a cohesive product. They did well with Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, and to a certain degree Youtube and Google Music, but the rest of their companies are just side projects for the sake of side projects. Not knocking them, I have tremendous respect, but I just find it funny.
Maybe their purpose was just to mine Waze's data, and assume that it's a separate type of consumer; so they haven't bothered to merge features.
Unfortunately Google Maps also does not allow real time following. I have swithced it on with a group of my friends and very often it does not refresh for 1 hr, 9 hours, 16 hrs... Even clikcing "refresh" button does not help... So what is wrong with this functionality?