Location sharing

The app never shares where you are unless you choose to share it. This page explains exactly what it does, what your guide sees, and how to say no.

The rules, up front

• Off unless you turn it on. The app starts with sharing off, and it stays off until you press a button yourself.
• Always ends by itself. Sharing runs for a time with an end — an hour, or at most until your trip ends — and then switches itself off. You never have to remember to stop it.
• Not a live track. Your guide sees your last sent position and the time it was sent — never a moving dot following you around.
• Nothing while the app is closed — unless you choose trip sharing. With sharing off, or while sharing an hour at a time, your phone sends nothing once you close the app. Only Share for my whole trip works while the app is closed, and it only starts after you say yes twice: once in the app, once to your phone.
• Old positions are deleted. Positions are kept for at most 30 days and then deleted.

How to share, if you want to

1. Open the Info tab.
2. Tap Share My Location. (Its subtitle in the app says exactly what this page says: "Off unless you turn it on.")
3. Choose one of three buttons: Send my location once — one position, one time, done — Share for the next hour, or Share for my whole trip.

If you choose to share for the hour, the app is loud about it on purpose: a colored banner sits across the top of the app's main screens the whole time, saying "Sharing your location with your guide until…" with a Stop button right on it. Sharing for the hour works only while the app is open: it sends a new position every 5 minutes, and nothing once you close the app. When the hour is up, sharing stops by itself. You can tap Stop at any moment before that.

Sharing for your whole trip

If you would rather not think about it again, you can share for the whole trip instead. This is the one way the app can send your location while it is closed — and it never starts on its own. You say yes twice: once in the app, and once to your phone.

1. On the Share My Location screen, tap Share for my whole trip.
2. The app explains itself first, on a full screen, before anything is shared: your phone will send a position about every 15 minutes, only when you have moved, never as a live track, and sharing stops by itself when your trip ends — the screen names the exact day. Tap Continue if that is what you want, or Not now and nothing happens.
3. Your phone then asks its own questions — it may ask twice. First it asks to use your location; allow it. Then it asks how. For sharing to work while the app is closed, choose Allow all the time on an Android phone, or Change to Always Allow on an iPhone.

If you tap no at any of those steps, that is the end of it: nothing is shared, and you can still share an hour at a time whenever you like.

While trip sharing is on, your phone sends a position about every 15 minutes, and only when you are on the move — after roughly 500 meters. It is never more often than that, and never a live track. The app always shows that sharing is on, with Stop sharing now one tap away. On an Android phone, a notification saying "Sharing your location with your guide" stays in place the whole time, so you can always see it. On an iPhone, the system shows its own location sign at the top of the screen.

Trip sharing ends by itself: the app says "until your trip ends on" with your trip's last day, and that end time is set by our servers from your tour's dates — the app cannot stretch it. You never have to remember to stop it, and you can stop it sooner at any time, with one tap.

Why a guide might ask you to share

Usually for a simple, practical reason: free time in a big town square, a market with many exits, a rest stop where two people have wandered farther than planned. Seeing your last position saves your guide a search — and saves you being searched for.

Saying no is fine — genuinely

The one exception: SOS

If you are lost or need help, the Emergency page (the red card at the top of the Info tab) has a button that says Send my location to my guide. Pressing it sends your position one time — and it works even when location sharing is switched off, because you are asking for help and that tap is your consent. The app asks "Send your location to your guide now?" before it sends, so it cannot happen by accident.

Is my location tracked?

No. Nothing is tracked unless you turned sharing on yourself, and there is no way for your tour company to switch it on for you. When you are not sharing, your phone sends nothing. When you share for an hour, it sends single positions, only while the app is open, only until the hour runs out. When you share for your whole trip, it sends a position about every 15 minutes while you are on the move, even with the app closed — never a live track, never more often than that — and it stops by itself when your trip ends. Your phone asks its own permission questions, and the app asks for "all the time" access only if you choose trip sharing. It is never required, and saying no still leaves you the hour at a time.