NOLABIKER

You could use either the Glympse or Waze apps. I know they are available for Android, not sure about iPhone users. Another feature of Android phones is that if you turn on location services, your significant other can log into your account (assuming you trust that person) and see where you've been and where you are. All of these cost no money to use.

Being a ham radio operator, I can also use APRS and my wife can go online to see where I am.

JimF22003

Depends on where you ride. I did a century in the Allegheny Highlands of VA on Saturday, and as far as I can tell didn't have cell service at all once I got five miles out of town.

TakingMyTime

I've been using this...

https://www.glympse.com/

WalksOn2Wheels

Any tracking app that your significant other would use to locate your phone should have negligible impact on the battery. The app only turns your GPS on for the instantaneous check point crated by the tracking app. As a point of reference, I've been doing 2-ish hour long rides after work and my wife checks on my location to see when she can expect me home and I've noticed no real dent in my battery life on days she might track me and days I don't ride.

For the Garmin Livetrack stuff, it communicates with your phone via bluetooth and broadcasts to the web using minimal data, so the battery life will drop a little bit, but not that much. In my experience, the only real limit on the 4-5 hour ride length was the battery life of the Garmin, which can be extended by turning off the backlight feature. I don't even remember keeping tabs on how the phone battery did.

A GPS dependent app like Strava or Mapmyride is going to be constantly using your GPS and puts a huge drain on your battery, as you have previously experienced. I always laugh when people try to use their phones as bike computers and spend money on silly mounts. If you're out for a seriously long day, you're going to be out a bike computer and a Plan B. Good luck finding a pay phone.

As a side note, I will say that while I love my Garmin, and Livetrack has worked well when I needed it to, updates can be very buggy on both the device itself and the Garmin connect phone app required to do the live stream. The cheapest and most dead reliable option is a free tracking app as long as you leave the house with a well charged phone battery. For me, the Garmin is useful beyond the tracking feature, and I don't really use it much anymore as my wife seems to prefer the phone tracking app for whatever reason.

WalksOn2Wheels

Just because you can't make a call doesn't mean you can't be found via GPS. They are independent of each other. You have to go really, really out of your way to lose GPS signal.

WalksOn2Wheels

True story. I had a really dumb accident a little over a year ago and busted my ACL. All I knew at the time was that I couldn't stand up, but I wasn't going to die anytime soon, so I didn't need an ambulance. I called my wife, let her know I was in an accident and that I needed her to come pick me up. She was at work (high school German teacher) and asked me, "Can't your parents come pick you up?" They were three times as far away.

metalheart44

I have used Glympse for several years and it works very well. Allows live tracking showing speed and location, very useful.

Andy Somnifac 

I don't. She just knows I'm out riding.

RoderWrench

I use FollowMee app on Iphone. It's free and you can set how often it pings to manage battery drain.

gregf83 

True but the point is for other people to know your GPS location and for that you need a cell connection. If you can't call or text no one including the cell company will be able to locate you. They can spot your last known location where you had a cell connection but beyond that and you're on your own.

WalksOn2Wheels

I was assuming that the GPS capability would allow you to track the phone independent of the cellular network, but a quick google search tells me I am wrong. I apologize for that.

If you were in such a remote area and loved ones were concerned, the SPOT device previously mentioned would be the best bet.

SpeshulEd 

You could use the GPS if you were out of reach, but no one would be able to ping your phone to determine where you were.

la rosa 

I use Garmin Live track

Seattle Forrest

This is what we do. I send her a link before I head out, she can check the map when she likes. I take the same basic route most days after work, and vary it a little but she knows when I go through a specific point I'm on my way home.

It stopped the "Where are you?" and "When are you going to be home?" texts I used to have to stop and reply to, and the "I worry about you." Instead I come home to a cold glass of ice water and dinner with it half the time.

Lots of phone apps do this too. The neat thing with "Live Track" is the GPS comes from the watch and not from the phone, so it's pretty gentle on your battery.

Ironically, I don't get reception anywhere in the Cascades, so when I rent an MTB and hit a trail, she just accepts it. I tell her what trail I'll be on, when to expect me, and when to call SAR. But I carry a PLB when I go into the mountains, it puts her at ease to know I can call in the cavalry if things go south.

Seattle Forrest

You gotta give some to get some. If she worries and wants to know where you are, giving her some kind of tracking option means she won't be calling and texting while you ride. Let her watch through the eye in the sky, and she'll leave you alone to do your thing.

indyfabz

Tomorrow I am flying to Rapid City to start a tour in SD and NE. I gave my GF cue sheets for most days in case I go missing. Cell coverage will be limited or not available in many places while I am riding, but I should have coverage most days in camp. She knows not to expect to hear from me constantly or maybe at all some days. I wear a Medic-Alert bracelet, so if some stranger finds me I can be identified even if the buzzards have dined on the flesh of my face.

If anyone of you want to pay the GF a visit while I am away, our address is 1060 W. Addison, Chicago, IL. We have a cat, so if you are allergic you might want to think twice.

Seattle Forrest

GPS is just a listener.

These tracking apps work because the app uses GPS to find where you are, and then uses your phone's internet connection to send that information to the "cloud."

Your carrier can come up with an idea where you were heading because your phone connects to their network and they have records of that. (In other words it's not based on GPS.)

Having a GPS signal just allows you to locate yourself on the earth's surface, it doesn't let you communicate your location to anyone else. It's like listening to the radio.

bikecrate

Well, I was only half joking. I ride at fairly predictable times in the middle of a large urban area so I'm unlikely to disappear or be stranded. She doesn't seem too concerned to actually track me. I also don't insist on tracking her movements either.

bt

duly noted ~oldnslow2

spdracr39

I use MapMyFitness live tracking, I have a Garmin that can be tracked through Garmin Connect, and the Find Friends App on the Iphone.

f4rrest

My phone was crushed in the last accident, so I don't rely on apps.

If it's remote and unusual route, I'll print a Google map and estimated timeframe.

Funny thing, the cop asked "what's ICE here on the sticker on back of your phone, Immigration and Customs Enforcement?" DOH!

zonatandem

Not an issue for us . . .

eyewannabike

She has better things to worry about than knowing exactly where I am, so I don't.

Machka 

Same with us ... some of the time.

Willbird

Cyclometer.....she stalks me if she feels like it, it is handy if I go out for a ride and we are heading to town when I get home :-). Should be picking up a Garmin Edge 510 Saturday and I guess I'll see what works with that :-).

Would like to still dump data to Cyclemeter it is kind of handy for looking up history.