I use Signal as my main messaging app now, but even for the contacts on there I have to fall back to Whatsapp to share our live locations in order to find each other. Doesn't happen very often but it is a useful feature that it is missing.
Thanks for that.
Is it really that hard to tell someone where you are with words?
I think Apple has done a really good job with this — you can share your location for an hour, the rest of the day, or forever. I use the “share for an hour” option all the time.
Yes, people need it. Had to use Telegram for it recently, because Matrix didnt have it at that time, and I don't have WhatsApp.
Just tell them your final destination verbally, and you're done.
Sometimes its about the journey, not the destination.
"From the XYZ Street beach entrance, we're about 100 yards north, with a blue umbrella."
Using realtime GPS tracking for this sort of thing is fetishizing technology to overoptimize a problem that was trivially solved for millenia using verbal offsets from known landmarks, while at the same time introducing and normalizing grave privacy concerns in society.
Good luck at long beaches where there are endless swaths of identical copy-paste tress, tents, deck chairs and umbrellas, without any unique elements to use as bearings. I would hate to have to send people on wild goose chases in the hot sun.
>wearing a red shirt
You've obviously never experienced how difficult it is to be found by your friends if you're short in a crowd of tall people at a concert or any sort of wide festival/gathering. Telling people what color your shirt is doesn't do anything to help if they can't see you until they're within 1m of you. And that's without it being dark at night. It's like finding Waldo IRL but more difficult.
> fetishizing technology to overoptimize a problem that was trivially solved for millenia
Ok Fred Flintstone, you do you, just let me enjoy the modern comforts of current technical achievements please and you feel free to follow the stars and buffalo tracks with your friends.