• Dave@lemmy.nz
    20·
    1 day ago

    Are you literally just wanting to see the location of family members?

    If you’re a self-hoster there are options, and that’s pretty much the only way you can know it’s private.

    Two that come to mind are:

    The PhoneTrack NextCloud app. If you run Nextcloud you can install this in nextcloud, then install a location logger on the phones. I’m more familiar with Android which has options but from a search I think OwnTracks can send to Nextcloud and supports iOS and Android (someone reported their iOS success here).

    Home Assistant let’s you see locations of people on a map that is tracked with the Home Assistant mobile app on Android/iOS.

    I have found uLogger or the old PhoneTrack app (that connect to GPS on a schedule) to be more accurate than apps that rely on Google telling them when the location has changed (Home Assistant and I think Owntracks). But also much more of a battery drain.

    So it depends how often you want the location to be updated. I find running uLogger or PhoneTrack on the phone actually makes Home Assistant get location updates much quicker(I run both for different reasons).

    • relic4322@lemmy.mlOP
      2·
      19 hours ago

      looking at uLogger now, that looks pretty interesting. Having used it, any reason why I shouldnt give this a go?

      • Dave@lemmy.nz
        2·
        12 hours ago

        Just remember if you want to share location data with someone else, the app on your phone is only one half. You also need some sort of server ehere you install software for it to report to.

        For uLogger that’s probably NextCloud with the PhoneTrack app installed, or OwnTracks.

        There are companies that offer paid NextCloud hosting, but if you aren’t hosting it yourself you probably can’t say it meets your privacy requirement.

        • relic4322@lemmy.mlOP
          2·
          11 hours ago

          Yeah, that was going to be the second part of the question. Was it an all in one solution. There does seem to be a server side ulogger component but it may only be for viewing the data. Ill have to dig into the whole thing more to see what kind of FOSS self-hosted solution makes sense.

          • Dave@lemmy.nz
            2·
            11 hours ago

            Yeah it’s a maybe, uLogger seems to let you choose which track you want to see. I presume the app lets you log to a specific track so you can have one for each person.

            It might depend on what specific experience you’re looking for. For example, I log to Nextcloud and can view it there, but this is more of a “find my phone” plus tracking where I’ve been for myself (similar to Google Location History). While I’m sure I can set it up so others can see, it’s not really designed for it. It would also be a bit awkward as you’d have to log in to Nextcloud in a browser to see the locations (seems it’s possibly the same for uLogger).

            I also run Home Assistant for home automation. I trigger automations off of my wife and my locations, but either of us can open the app and see at a glance where the other is (with pre-defined locations, such as “Home”, “School”, “@Dave’s Work”, etc, plus the ability to tap and see the exact location on a map).

            That Home Assistant setup is much more useful for either of us seeing where the other is than I think the more dedicated tracking apps are, since they aren’t designed around sharing your location with others and that’s more of a side-function.

    • stephen@lazysoci.alEnglish
      4·
      1 day ago

      Yep, that’s my goal. I’m going to check all of these projects out. Thanks for the recommendations.