Location Sharing with Locus Map

Locus Map is a great outdoor navigation app that I've been playing with and enjoying lately. It is an extremely configurable and powerful app which simply can't be reviewed in one blog post, so I will cover some specific features as I explore them. In this first article about Locus Map I will talk about location sharing.

There are many reasons you might want to share your location, whether as a one-time manual update or through real-time tracking. For hikers, one of the most important reasons is when hiking alone - having someone know your whereabouts could be lifesaving in the event of an accident or emergency.

It is also important to be able to share some specific location on the map, for example a meeting point, a campsite or simply a waypoint, so that others can easily find it.

There are various different ways for location sharing and this app seems to cover them all.

I've created a youtube video to demonstrate some of the sharing options

We reach the sharing menu by selecting "Sharing Options" from the app's main menu:

This brings us to a list of various sharing options:

The following sections explain the different options provided by Locus Map for sharing your current location, as determined by GPS.

My current location

This is the quickest option for sharing your current location. Once you click this option you get presented with a dialogue for selecting the app to share with. For example, you can share using WhatsApp, Viber, your SMS messaging app, etc. You select the recipient(s) from within the sharing app itself.

The message that is sent is of the following format:

Hi, Locus Map says I'm here at the moment: 
https://web.locusmap.app/loc/44.77596:20.42812

Note that the link points to a service hosted by Locus Map. When the recipient receives the message and clicks the hyperlink, your location will be presented in Locus Map's online Route Planner in their web browser. The recipient doesn't need to have the Locus Map app installed, but they do need to have an internet connection! This could be a problem if your recipient is in a remote area with a poor data connection.

We explore some alternatives in the "Text Message" sharing option further down in this article.

My live location

This option enables simple continuous location sharing. Choose for how long you want to share your location, and start sharing.

Locus Map will provide a unique URL on their Live Tracking website, which you can copy or share with others to let them track your position in their browsers.

This is what you will see in Locus Map if you have no ongoing tracking or recording:

The gray square shows the last location that was shared with your audience.

Your viewers will see something similar to the following in their browsers:

Your position gets updated every 15 seconds in their browser for the duration you specified. Users on the Basic (free) and Silver plans are limited to 30 minutes of continuous live location sharing, while users on the Gold plan (currently 24 €/year) have no limitations.

Note that only people with the URL you share will be able to view your location. There are no groups involved like in the Live Tracking covered in the next section, so any group features such as chatting is not available.

Before it starts sharing your location, in order to ensure that the operation doesn't get interrupted, Locus Map asks you to set the location access permissions to "Allow all the time", as opposed to "Allow only while using the app". If you don't allow this permission, the location sharing most likely won't work (it didn't work for me as much as I tried).

If you do turn it on, you may want to disallow it when no longer needed, as this setting does drain your resources (the app or part of it needs to be running at all times).

Live tracking

This option allows you to share your live tracking:

publicly with anyone browsing the Locus Live Tracking website, or
with a private group of users by creating or joining a group

Detailed instructions for setting up different types of live tracking are available at the Locus Live Tracking manual.

Note that users on the Basic (free) and Silver plans cannot create private groups. So if you are on one of these plans and need to setup a private group for location sharing you're probably better off trying Glympse whose free plan currently does support private groups.

Note that if you have your GPS on, the current cursor location is usually your current location. But you can always manually move your map so that the cursor points to some specific point of your interest on the map. Options in this section can help you share such locations.

Web link

This is the same as sharing your location ("My current location" section above), except that it is the cursor location that is shared and not necessarily your current location. Although these two are usually the same when GPS is turned on.

So, what gets shared is the web.locusmap.app URL.

Text message

I find this option to be the most powerful of the manual sharing options. It allows you to put various pieces of information into a single text message. You chose what info you want to add. You can pick from:

Your short description
Coordinates
Altitude
Google Maps URL
Geohash URL
Address (as determined by Locus Map, but editable)

These are easy to add:

Here's a sample message:

Camp site 
Altitude: 147 m
N 44.76919°, E 020.43444° 
https://maps.google.com/maps?z=15&mrt=loc&t=p&q=44.769195%2C20.434443

Note the "Quick sharing" options in the above screenshot. Being able to quickly share just the Google Maps link is a nice touch. I often use it instead of the default "My current location" option (described above in this article) which shares a locusmap URL. Most people have the Google Maps app installed on their devices so by just clicking this link they get the shared location displayed in their app in a familiar user interface. This could work well in areas of poor coverage if you send the message via SMS (assuming there's some network coverage!) and if the recipient has the map of the area cached. It's really about being well prepared for the occasion!

Other map apps

Display the current cursors location in another app on your device. This could be useful in situations such as:

you want to see a specific location in a different app, which may have a different set of maps
you want to use a different app to navigate to the specific location

what3words

This is a premium feature, it allows you to share your location using the what3words service

In certain situations you may want to share the map you're looking at with someone else. You could always use your phone's screenshot taking/sharing function, but I guess having this option directly in the app doesn't hurt either!

Verdict (and how does it compare to Glympse)

Glympse is an app that focuses on location sharing and it's no surprise it excels in live tracking. The look and feel of the receiving part of live tracking in Glympse is more pleasing than in Locus Map, the whole process feels more robust, setting it up is more flexible and comes at no cost even for periods longer than 30 minutes.

However, Locus Map can get the job done, so if you are already using Locus Map and specially if you're a Premium Gold user and can therefore live-share your location for more than 30 minutes, go for it.

When it comes to manually sharing your current location, Locus Map excels in this area, offering several convenient methods. One particularly handy feature is the "Text message" option. You can share not only your current location but also any other spot - like a meeting point, campsite, or point of interest - with just a few taps.