My wife and I have Google maps location sharing turned on all the time. It's not stepping because we agreed to it. Last night I got home from a motorcycle ride and the garage door opened as I pulled up because my wife knew I was coming home from a movie and saw I was almost home.
I have friends who do this too, but it always just feels icky to me. Yes, I know that my mobile carrier knows more or less where I am at all times, and Google knows with even greater precision. But I don't want people I know, even my partner, to have that kind of access (and I don't want to be able to track my partner, either).
Another poster mentioned their wife went to a doctor's appointment, but it was in the same building as a divorce lawyer. Having forgotten about the appointment, they panicked. That sort of thing tells me that this sort of thing isn't harmless, even if there's nothing nefarious going on. There are enough reasons in life for miscommunications and misunderstandings to pop up; adding extra ways for that to happen by accident is not something I'm interested in.
I think targeted, time-limited, explicit sharing can be useful. I used to use Glympse sometimes, when I was on my way somewhere, to make it easy for other people I'd be meeting to know where I was and how long they'd expect to be waiting for me. That let me share with specific people, on demand, and only for a certain amount of time that I specify up-front. But blanket, always-on sharing? No thanks.
> Another poster mentioned their wife went to a doctor's appointment, but it was in the same building as a divorce lawyer.
This exact thing happened to me. However if your first thought is they are at the lawyer at not the hospital... You probably have some things to work out in your relationship anyway.
We realized we were calling each other too often asking where the other is and just decided to let tech solve the problem. Now I can push a button and see how far away from home she is.
If I decide to do something sketchy, I can turn off location temporarily and just lie to her about what I was doing if she checks while I was crime-ing. Same as the pretech way. :-P
My wife and I do the same. She often has to drive long distances, at night, in the winter. It's a nice way for me to both see her progress and make sure she isn't stuck somewhere.
I also struggle to send a "hey, I'm on my way message". My wife really appreciates being able to check on the map quickly.
As a motorcycle rider I don't have access to my phone while riding so I actually prefer that she can just check on me. It also makes her feel better when she sees me moving and not stopped.
I'm also quite liberal with sharing my location (via Google maps) when traveling to meet up with friends, but it's always been a huge battery drain. I can't imagine what it's like being on all the time!
It's not a huge battery drain when I use it at all. Google already has a history of where you go so I don't even know why they would need more battery for it.
Can anyone share how they do this self-hosted? I'd guess a custom protocol would be worse battery-wise, but I would be able to plug in while in the car.
