Life360 for Windows Phone, an easy way to keep track of your Family

Life360 is a family location app for Windows Phone 8 that will map out family members smartphones using GPS tracking engineering science. The app too has features to locate lost phones, alerts for when family members achieve their destination, and more.

Life360 is available for Windows Phone 8, iPhones, Android devices and even non-smartphones can be registered and tracked. The app has plenty of features but does require each smartphone to take the app installed and each family unit register for membership. While the core Life360 service is gratuitous, it takes a petty more effort to fix-up than, say AT&T's Family Map but may end up saving you a little greenbacks along the fashion.

Life360'southward Set-up

When you lot showtime launch Life360, you lot will need to register with the service. The unabridged process takes a few minutes and when complete, the app will transport you to its master pages.

The chief folio of Life360 has a map view at the upper quarter of the folio that will mark your location and your family fellow member'southward location (if they are nearby). At the very meridian of the page is a tabbed menu that will give y'all the option to alter your circles (more on this in a second) along with icons to send out an alert or check-in at a location.

Below the map view is a series of pages or sections that includes:

• Member Listing
• Messages
• Places (for location based alerts)
• Premium Services

The Member page volition list your particulars (current location) and whatever other members in your family unit circle. You can create additional circles such as extended family, caregivers, friends, etc. The default view is for your family circle but you can switch between circles by using the tabbed bill of fare on the chief page.

A quick note on the map view is that if you tap on the map department, it will expand full screen where yous can move information technology effectually or zoom in/out by touch. Circumvolve members will exist pinned and if you tap on the map pin, the view will shift to the fellow member's details on the Member folio.

To invite a family member to join your circumvolve, only tap the "Add together New Member" button tile on Life360's Members section. You can choose members to invite from your Windows Phone address book or enter their contact information manually. When invited an email will exist sent to your family member requesting they download the app to their phone, create a membership with Life360 and join your circle.

In one case they bring together your circumvolve, tapping their name will pull upward a list of options that includes sending them a bulletin, call them, update their location, generate directions to their location and view their contour. Circle options can exist accessed at the bottom of the Members folio and include hiding a circle member, edit the proper name of the circumvolve, delete members of a circle and choose which alerts are used for notifications (email, app notifications or SMS).

Additional Features

While the main function of Life360 is to track or locate your family members, the app has a few additional features that could come in handy. For example, you lot tin create a place that volition allow you to create a location based alert when a family unit member arrives at that location. This characteristic tin come in handy when a teenage driver is traveling and you need to make sure they reach their destination safely.

Another feature for the basic Life360 app is the power to pivot reported crimes on your map and alert you lot when crimes are reported in your area. If yous aren't sure of the area a family unit member is traveling to or through, this characteristic can alert you of potential safety issues.

While Life360 helps you keep tabs on family members, past tracking the phone itself the app can come in handy to locate a lost or stolen phone. It may not pinpoint which room of the business firm you left your Windows Phone in only it'll get you in the neighborhood.

Premium Service

The basic Life360 is gratis and includes the location tracking service, the ability to create two places, the messaging feature, law-breaking pins and check-ins. Life360 also offers a Premium Service that will cost $5 per month (annual plan runs $50 with two months free) that will add the following features:

• 24/7 Live Advisor
• Instant Roadside Help
• Unlimited Places
• Not-Smartphone Lookups
• Stolen Phone Protection (up to $100)

Performance

As far as the accuracy of locating your Windows Phone (or whatsoever other smartphone), Life360 is a piddling bit of a mixed bag. Life360 was able to map locations within well-nigh 25 anxiety of where the phones really were but at that place were times when the location was several city blocks off. It appears to be an indoor vs. outdoor issue, which shouldn't be that surprising, with the accurateness being slightly off when you GPS lacks a articulate view of the sky. Mapping non-smartphones wasn't equally authentic due to the lack of a GPS but shut enough to requite you lot a clue if your kid is where they are supposed to be or non.

Keep in mind, Life360 isn't a live tracking app and won't track your movements as a navigation app would. Information technology will refresh your member's locations periodically or you can manually refresh a fellow member's location from their fellow member'due south listing.

Messaging was similar to other messaging services and I liked how the emergency alert has a countdown timer earlier a family unit member is notified. This gives you a few seconds to cancel the alert simply in case you accidently tap the icon. What I don't like is that the emergency alert volition call, text and electronic mail everyone in your circle. I would have preferred an option to warning select members of my circumvolve than sending my children a message that I'm in trouble.

Not effectually your Windows Phone and demand to locate a family member? You tin become to Life360.com and accept online access to your account from a figurer. You can message, view your location history and manage your Circles from the web portal.

Improve than the alternatives?

Life360 isn't the just game in town for keeping tabs on family member's phones. Microsoft has the My Windows Telephone service and wireless providers offer similar family unit location services. Sprint has the Family Locator service, T-Mobile has the FamilyWhere app (Android only), Verizon has a Family Locator service every bit well. Personally, I have first-hand experience with AT&T Family Map and have to admit that Life360 comes beyond as a viable alternative to what the wireless providers offering.

While Microsoft allows y'all to locate, band, lock and erase your Windows Phone, the service is express to your Windows Phone. While the My Windows Phone service from Microsoft is a free service and has a bang-up drove of features, it volition not let yous track family members.

AT&T offers a similar service, AT&T Family unit Map, which gives you the ability to locate family member'southward phones. The phones have to exist associated with your account and the service comes at a cost ($9.99 a month for up to 2 phones and upwards to five phones for $14.99). AT&T Family Map has the ability to telephone call, text and locate phones (smart or otherwise) and does not require an app to exist installed. You tin set places within the Family unit Map app but at that place are no location based alerts. You can access the AT&T Family Map services through a Windows Telephone app or web portal.

Is Life360 better than the alternatives? With the ability to runway family members, I have to give it the nod to Life360 over Microsoft'southward service. If you don't have a family to keep up with, the My Windows Phone service volition do just fine in locating a lost Windows Phone and does take the added ability to ring, lock or erase your phone.

AT&T does comes at a price, lacks location based alerts and is limited in the number of phones it can track. On the plus side, AT&T Family Map doesn't require an app installed to track a phone and covers both smartphones and non-smart phones. Life360 does match or surpass AT&T Family unit Map with regards to features but requires an app and registration to locate a phone. This requirement isn't unreasonable only all a family fellow member has to practice to hide from being located by Life360 is delete the app or turn off the location services. Family Map and like tin can work off the cellular signal and the only way I know to defeat Family unit Map is to turn off your phone.

When all is said and washed, information technology's a close call as to which is best. The paid services should have a gratuitous trail period and with Life360's basic service being complimentary, there really isn't anything stopping you from trying both and deciding for yourself. Personally, once my youngest child moves to a smartphone this summer (I am told it's not cool for a teenager to have a flip phone), I'll probably exist using Life360 full-time and save a little on my wireless beak. While she uses a feature telephone, AT&T'due south Family Map seems to provide the more than accurate location between the two.

Overall Impression

I have survived a teenage son learning to bulldoze (who incidentally is headed off to higher this Autumn) and I am about to accept a girl move into the teenage years (not looking frontwards to gentlemen callers).

Existence able to locate my family unit members when they do not respond the phone or verify where they are when they do answer the phone is important. Fifty-fifty if you don't take children, these location services tin besides come in handy to assistance locate elderberry family members or help find family members during times of crunch. Life360 can be a small reassurance that anybody in your family is accounted for and where they should be.

Life360 does a good job of locating family unit member'south smartphones and gets you lot in the neighborhood of where not-smartphones are. The location based alerts are a overnice impact and will non only generate a toast notification when a family fellow member reaches a destination but you lot'll as well become an electronic mail. The app is laid out in simple, simple manner. While I would have preferred to have simply registered the telephone number with Life360, requiring the members of your circle to register and download the app helps prevent abuses.

If you are looking for an alternative to a paid service offered past your wireless carrier that locates your family'south phones you lot may want to take a gander at Life360.

• Life360 - Windows Phone 8 - Free - Store Link

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/life360-windows-phone-easy-way-keep-track-your-family

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