App to monitor new teen driver (1 Viewer)

[TheIronSheik]

Anyone used anything that they would recommend?  Someone at work said Life360 is a good one, but was just wondering if anyone else has used one of these.

Mainly just want to monitor the basics:

- Where she is
- Where she's been
- Speed
- Phone being used while the car is moving

Those are the big things.  

TIA
TIS

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

Life 360 is good. I use the free version. It occasionally has hiccups (I think due to spotty signal usually). They have a paid service where you get more details, but I believe the free version handles everything you are wanting except for phone in use while moving. One note there: If they use bluetooth on their radio, it shows them using their phone while on the move, or so I am told by a friend. 

What I did to supplement the free 360 is to make my kids share their location with me on Snapchat. It shows if they are using the phone while moving (it shows them in a car on the map), and let's face it, if they're using the phone it's most likely Snapchat   So I feel like that's pretty good monitoring coverage between the two. 

 

[Peak]

2nd for Life360.  We use the free version as well and no real issues.  My daughter uses bluetooth on her radio, so I'll have to follow up on what the good Colonel referenced.  

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

2nd for Life360.  We use the free version as well and no real issues.  My daughter uses bluetooth on her radio, so I'll have to follow up on what the good Colonel referenced.  

Please report your findings. Said friend didn't seem too sure of themselves when they mentioned that.  

 

[TheIronSheik]

Interesting you both say the free version does all that.  When I looked at it, I thought for the driving stuff, you had to get the $8.99/month service.  Which is fine, too.  But free is better.

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

Interesting you both say the free version does all that.  When I looked at it, I thought for the driving stuff, you had to get the $8.99/month service.  Which is fine, too.  But free is better.

Yeah, it was a little misleading, IMO. As far as I can tell, about the only thing the paid version does, aside from the real time "phone in use while moving" is maybe give you a few more details and the "driver report."  But the free version definitely will show you their speed and location real-time as long as they have Location settings set to "allow at all times" (even when not using the app), and it will also show you any "trips" they made (the route, start and end points, and I think maybe the average speed even, IIRC)

 

[TheIronSheik]

I know when I worked for the oil companies, we had this software that was on our trucks.  This was back in 2002, so it was fairly new stuff at the time.  Now I'm sure most phones can do this.  But the one thing I liked was we could draw a boundary around a map.  Since it was a work truck, it should only be on certain roads and in certain areas.  If the truck went outside that area, we'd get alerted.  Does this app have anything like that on it?  

 

[Psychopav]

Third vote in for Life360 here.  I only use the free version and my kids don't have data so it's not giving me speed reports, but it shows where they go and when if they're on wifi.  And if heightened awareness/security is necessary, I will let them know I'm turning their data on.  

 

[Peak]

Please report your findings. Said friend didn't seem too sure of themselves when they mentioned that.  

So I pulled up her profile.  I see where she's gone and her average speed, but nothing about phone usage.  I'm pretty sure that is an extra cost, or in the Life360Plus version.

But the one thing I liked was we could draw a boundary around a map.  Since it was a work truck, it should only be on certain roads and in certain areas.  If the truck went outside that area, we'd get alerted.  Does this app have anything like that on it?

I haven't seen any settings like that on the free version.  It does give you the opportunity to add "Places".  I think Free gives you two, so I've put "Home" and "School" in for now to test it.  The app will give you an alert/notification when they have arrived at a "Place" and when they have left a "Place".

Fun fact...we don't call it Life 360, but the "StalkerApp".  My kids coined the phrase and my wife and I have adopted it as a running joke.  My kids don't mind having it, especially since they can look on there to see where my wife and I are as well.  When I get the call from someone to say "hey stop at the store and get X", I usually reply with some smartass remark, to which my kids let me know they're "stalking" me on the app.

 

[TheIronSheik]

So I pulled up her profile.  I see where she's gone and her average speed, but nothing about phone usage.  I'm pretty sure that is an extra cost, or in the Life360Plus version.

I haven't seen any settings like that on the free version.  It does give you the opportunity to add "Places".  I think Free gives you two, so I've put "Home" and "School" in for now to test it.  The app will give you an alert/notification when they have arrived at a "Place" and when they have left a "Place".

Fun fact...we don't call it Life 360, but the "StalkerApp".  My kids coined the phrase and my wife and I have adopted it as a running joke.  My kids don't mind having it, especially since they can look on there to see where my wife and I are as well.  When I get the call from someone to say "hey stop at the store and get X", I usually reply with some smartass remark, to which my kids let me know they're "stalking" me on the app.

So they can see your stats, too?  

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

I know when I worked for the oil companies, we had this software that was on our trucks.  This was back in 2002, so it was fairly new stuff at the time.  Now I'm sure most phones can do this.  But the one thing I liked was we could draw a boundary around a map.  Since it was a work truck, it should only be on certain roads and in certain areas.  If the truck went outside that area, we'd get alerted.  Does this app have anything like that on it?  

Kind of. You can set alerts on certain locations. I think you get 3 locations you can name with the freebie version. You can kind of set a radius for each location. Then you can set alerts for a driver on when they enter/leave a certain location. 

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

So I pulled up her profile.  I see where she's gone and her average speed, but nothing about phone usage.  I'm pretty sure that is an extra cost, or in the Life360Plus version.

I haven't seen any settings like that on the free version.  It does give you the opportunity to add "Places".  I think Free gives you two, so I've put "Home" and "School" in for now to test it.  The app will give you an alert/notification when they have arrived at a "Place" and when they have left a "Place".

Fun fact...we don't call it Life 360, but the "StalkerApp".  My kids coined the phrase and my wife and I have adopted it as a running joke.  My kids don't mind having it, especially since they can look on there to see where my wife and I are as well.  When I get the call from someone to say "hey stop at the store and get X", I usually reply with some smartass remark, to which my kids let me know they're "stalking" me on the app.

 yeah, my daughter changed her name to "Stop stalking me"  

 

[belljr]

meh - i just share on google maps.

 

[TheIronSheik]

So, would my daughter be able to see how fast I'm driving?  Because I don't want that.    If I turned off my location services, I assume my data wouldn't show up unless I had the app open, right?

 

[GroveDiesel]

Extra points for the company that adds pressure sensors for the back seats.

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

So, would my daughter be able to see how fast I'm driving?  Because I don't want that.    If I turned off my location services, I assume my data wouldn't show up unless I had the app open, right?

Can't speak for Android, but for iPhones, you can set Location settings to "only when I am using the app" 

 

[Peak]

So, would my daughter be able to see how fast I'm driving?  Because I don't want that.    If I turned off my location services, I assume my data wouldn't show up unless I had the app open, right?

Under "Universal Settings" there is a setting called "Drive Detection".  I turned mine off, but snuck into the other phones and turned it "on".    

This setting is what allows the driving info to appear on the app.  So they only see when I get to a place or leave a place, as well as my current location - not how fast I drive, or a map of where I drive.  However, I am able to track that for my kids.  They don't know about it, but if they ever changed it, I would know immediately as this data would no longer be visible.

 

[simsarge]