Track your family and keep them safe with Life360
There are plenty of apps out there that can track your phone’s location in case you lose it or to share where you are with your friends, but Life360 is one of the most trusted apps in the family safety category and just rolled out a major update with new features and services that makes it the first Family Safety Membership Service of its kind.
General features
If you’re not familiar with the app, Life360’s main feature allows family members to track each other’s location in real-time, ensuring that everyone is safe and accounted for. Simply set up the app on all the Android or iOS devices you want to track using your unique code and you’ll be able to see the location of each device within minutes. While seeing where your spouse or kids are at all times is convenient, the best part of the Life360 service is its ability to create geofenced locations and send notifications anytime specific devices enter or leave the designated area.
To take advantage of this feature, you’ll first need to add new Places to your map by tapping the places tab at the bottom of the screen. Once you’ve added in the most common spots you and your family members go to, you can then tap the bell icon next to the location and tap the location name to turn on arrival or departure notifications for each member of your group.
This feature is extremely convenient, notifying you when your children arrive or leave school, when they get home or when your spouse is heading home from work s that you know when to start making dinner. It’ll also be helpful in keeping track of when everyone gets home at night to help enforce any curfew time you may have, even if you’re not there to check in on them.
But don’t just think of Life360 as an app to track your family members. Anyone with the app can create their own circles. This means your children and their friends can have their own group for any clubs that they may be in. Temporary groups could also be set up by a teacher during a school outing to help track down any stragglers on a field trip or help locate someone if they happen to get lost.
In case of an emergency, you can activate the Life360’s SOS feature from the app’s home screen. Simply press and release the big blue button to send a notification through the app and a text message to others in your group. If you think you’re in a situation in which you might need assistance, you can simply hold your finger on the button indefinitely with the SOS message going out only when you let go. Another feature of our app is Free Crash Detection. With the feature enabled, the app will use the phone’s built-in sensors to identify if the phone’s owner has been in an accident and will notify all the users emergency contacts if it does. Life360’s Gold and Platinum subscription services also come with Emergency Response notification that will inform them of the accident and location as well.
Upgraded services
Most of the apps new features are included in the various Life360’s monthly paid subscriptions. Location history for individual devices in the free tier is only available for 24 hours, but the $5 monthly Silver Plan increases tracking history to 7 days while also giving you location notification for five different Places you’ve designated on the map. The Silver Plan also includes a general driving report for members in your group and crash detection in case anyone gets into an accident.
The upgraded Gold Plan ($9.99/month) is the most popular since it includes individual driver reports which is a must-have for anyone with new drivers in the family. In addition to tracking how many times they drive, the miles they cover and their top speed, it also highlights fast accelerations and hard braking. It will even keep track of how many times the driver uses their phone while on the road. Location tracking with the Gold Plan extends to 30 days and gives you unlimited Places notifications, 24/7 roadside assistance, 24/7 emergency response with Life 360’s SOS feature, and crash detection get upgraded to include automatic emergency response as well. On top of that, you get $250 stolen phone coverage and even $25k in ID Theft Protection & Restoration coverage.
The Platinum Tier ($14.99/month) offers the most comprehensive coverage for your Family. In addition to the features included in the cheaper plans, it also offers $500 in stolen phone coverage, a bump up to $1M (per person) in ID Theft Protection & Restoration, along with credit monitoring. The final perk of the Platinum tier subscription is what Life360 calls Family Safety Assist, which includes Emergency Disaster Response, Medical Assistance, and Travel Support, all with a team of live agents. With everything happening around the world right now, this added coverage could be a godsend if you need to travel and run into any issues. Simply having that peace of mind is easily worth the monthly cost.
Anyone interested in saving a bit of cash may want to opt for the 17% discount Life360 offers if you pay for a full year subscription to its services upfront. This brings the Platinum tier down to $12.50 per month and the Gold and Silver plans down to $8.33 and $4.17, respectively.
Final thoughts
While many may already rely on Google’s “Find My device” service to check in to see where your family members are if they’re late getting home or have not heard from them in a while, Life360 takes things to a whole new level. The arrival and departure notifications are a game-changer, keeping you apprised of where everyone is without having to worry about reminding to let you know when they’re on their way home or heading out to a friend’s house.
Life360 is the best complete option when it comes to family safety and security.
For more details on the app’s features and service, check out life360.com or download Life360 for your Android or iOS device.