I've spent the morning searching old posts. I've gone to Strava's help center... nothing.

I have setup a "free" account and I've downloaded the app to my Android phone, everything seems to be in place. Does the free account support live tracking? If so, how do I bring up the map in my browser?

Sorry if this is a repeat question but Strava's site is not very helpful at all and I've already spent way too much time trying to figure this out on my own.

If you mean tracking your position in real-time using the map embedded with the Strava app, you just swipe the screen until you get to the map page. This works with the free version. There is new functionality that gives you live feedback on segments but that's a premium feature.

If you mean someone else tracking your location in real-time, I don't think Strava supports that.

PUG,

Thank you. I am looking for something that will let my wife log onto her laptop and see where I am on my ride. If I'm going to have to pay, who offers the cheapest service for that?

MapMyRide does that with their premium MVP service. Runtastic Road Bike Pro does that with the combination of their premium app and free online service, with a paid service available as well. These services will show your route and ride stats along with your latest reported position.

Other services/apps will display your latest reported position. Apple's "Find My Friends" is one; Google's Latitude is another, but reportedly ending soon.

There are more of both types, some discussed recently in this forum.

On my iPhone, I have used a live tracking app called Glympse that works great. Don't know if they have an Android app also.
Because of battery draw down, I only use the app on rides less than 3 hours.

If you just want her to see where you are, I think you can set that up through Google+. Your phone can report your location, and anyone you've enabled location-sharing with can see where you are. A least that's how I think it will work. I've been doing it with Google Latitude, but that's being discontinued in favor of Google+. But what it won't do is show your route, just your current location.

I believe Strava just added the live tracking for Premium members. I don't use the app as I have an Edge.

I use an app on my android called "Life360"

It updates your position periodically, so it's not truly live tracking but it's good enough for what I use it for - staving off my nervous wife. Oh, and it's free.

Thanks, I will take a look. Free is always good!

Glympse works well on an android, and it's free.

There's a new iPhone app from RoadID called eCrumb. I haven't tried it yet but according to its short tutorial it sends a link to your chosen contacts that allows them to track you in real-time. It can also send an alert if you're stationary for a certain period of time.

Edit to add: The app is free. It's only for iPhone right now but according to FAQ they're planning an Android version.

The app is filed under "Road ID" in the iOS app store. I've used it for a couple of rides now. It does live tracking and its setup is the simplest I've tried so far, both for the athlete and the third party. It has an optional feature to alert your contact if you stop moving for 5+ minutes, as in perhaps you're injured. It also makes it easy to setup a lock screen image showing your key ID and contact information in case of emergency; the same information you'd put on your physical Road ID can go on your iPhone's lock screen. So far it's completely free of charge. An Android version is supposedly in the works.

I like this because I'm already tracking my ride for performance purposes with a Garmin bike computer; I don't require cycling performance tracking from the iPhone. This app does what I want for live tracking. I've owned a physical Road ID for 6+ years and appreciate that they're taking advantage of smart phones to add this new capability.

Well then you should try LocaToWeb which is a real time GPS tracker that serves exactly for this purpose. It has apps for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone.

There's also the Magellan SPOT system where you can hit a button to indicate a thumbs up status or a send help status. I believe it has an expiration timer that will go to a caution or help status too. Meant for solo touring etc. Pretty neat system.