Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by davidw | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

davidw

I kind of get the feeling they're a bit stale too.

Their app has not been working real well on my Android phone lately.

The only reason I have the 'pro' version is the "safety" feature that lets my wife know where I am, approximately.

Anyone got a good alternative for that?

Thinking of getting a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt... real time location update could integrate with that too.

View on HN

"Share Live Location" on WhatsApp. Works better than the Strava locator.

I'm also going to cancel my Summit membership over this crap, plus the lack of compelling features. The only reason I left the subscription going this year was to show support for an app I use, but given that article, I no longer feel like doing that.

If you're on Android (maybe even if you're not?) you can use Google Maps to share your location with specific people for a specified time, or indefinitely.

The iPhone Google Maps app has the feature, although I haven’t turned it on so can’t say how well it works.

It's pretty useful to have this tied to the actual ride; otherwise you're bound to forget it and leave it on, or off.

Also, you want some velocity information and/or history, so that someone can see that you've stopped moving and for how long.

Check out Glympse.

That requires allowing Google to retain your geolocation data.

Is Strava a more reliable partner in keeping this data safe than Google?

> The only reason I have the 'pro' version is the "safety" feature that lets my wife know where I am, approximately.

>Anyone got a good alternative for that?

Take a look at Life360. You don't need the paid version to do what you're asking for.

On IOS, go to the person in Contacts and choose Share My Location. Let’s you choose to share for 1 hour, 1 day, or indefinitely.

Specialized ANGi is a Bluetooth hardware dongle that attaches to your helmet and will allow a contact to live track your ride (using Specialized’s app on your smartphone) and can also detect crashes and automatically send a text message to a contact. It’s available to purchase on its own or included with many Specialized helmets. I have one on a new MTB helmet after a recent crash on a trail.

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/angi

Garmin LiveTrack is the same as Strava Beacon. But it might not be a "good" alternative. Many users have reported that LiveTrack fails to start reliably, or cuts out in the middle of activities.

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=HbqxxbiBGA3mDhlLX4GUw8

I haven't tried Wahoo.

I've had the same thing happen with wahoo multiple times.

My family has tried Garmin LiveTrack and it RARELY works. We have 4 people with 4 different devices and all of them are Garmin's most premium devices (Garmin Forerunner 935) and it fails almost every time. We all just gave up and have turned it off at this point.

If you're on iOS there's location sharing/ find my friends?

There are built-in ways to do that#

Android: android.com/find

iPhone: find my iPhone, find my friends.

I think I trust Apple's implementation more.

Also, SnapChat has a similar platform-agnostic feature, if you're willing to give them your data.

The Wahoo Elemnt Bolt is great!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com