Use the Trusted Contacts App to Monitor Your Family and Friends Locations
Edited by Chris Stipe, Alma, Eng, Inukshuk
Want to monitor your family and friends' locations to help ensure their personal safety? Then Google's Trusted Contacts app for Android is a must-have app for you. Not only that, but it works great for emergency situations too! How is that you ask?
Well, say you get a call from your kid's school saying your son/daughter did not come into school and now you're a little frantic wondering where they are but unable to get them on the phone? You can use the app to get their exact location and make sure they are okay.
However, to make sure that you can ensure their personal safety, you will need to have the app installed. Don't have the app installed? Not sure how to do that? Not to worry, we got you covered here. Just start from part one. Already installed the app but have yet to start using it? Start from part two Have the app installed and already set it up for the first time but don't know quite how to use it? Start from part three.
Install the Trusted Contacts App
- 1Tap on the "Play Store" icon to load up the Google Play Store app.
- 2Tap on the search box and type in "Trusted Contacts" (without the brackets).
- 3Tap on "Trusted Contacts".
- 4Tap on the "Install" button and click on the "Accept" button if you get that pop-up.
- 5Wait for the app to finish downloading and installing and then you are ready to move on to the next step.
Setup the Trusted Contacts App for the First Time
- 1Either tap on the Trusted Contacts app if you closed the Play Store app or tap on the "Open" box to load the app.
- 2Tap on the "Get Started" button to begin the setup process.
- 3This information basically just gives you some short point forms about the app itself and what it is going to do.Read through each page and tap on the "Continue" button to continue through the process.
- 4Now, to share your location with family and friends, you must add/invite them to use the app by either tapping the "Add" button or the "Invite" button.
Only those that use the app will be able to obtain/ask for your location or for you to do the same. Once you have completed this step, you can move on to the next part on how to use it.
Use the Trusted Contacts App
Now that you have installed and setup the Trusted Contacts apps, and have added some family and friends, we will go over how to exactly use the app to monitor the locations of your family and friends in case of emergency or even if you want to just keep tabs on them. You can even share your location with them if you should so choose without them requesting for your location. Here's how to do either:
Sharing your location with family members and friends
- 1To share your location, tap on the "Location" icon near the top right corner of your screen.
- 2From here, you will have the choice of two options, tap on "Share with selected contacts" this will allow you to choose who will receive your location or tap on "Send an alert", which will immediately share your location with all the trusted contacts in your list).
Requesting family or friend's location
So how do you use in to monitor your family and friends' locations? Here's how:
- 1Tap on the contact in which you want to request their location.
- 2From the options, tap on Request contact's location.
- 3The recipient will receive a notification/alert that you are requesting to know their location and can either choose to share their location or deny the request.
- Please note: That after 5 minutes, if the person has not answered your request for their location, it will automatically be shared with you. This is beneficial in case of an actual emergency so that you can be updated with that valuable information.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
