My wife and I have the iPhone 4 with iOS 6. I recently had an issue with my heart that has been corrected. Now my wife wants to keep up with where I am on 2-3 hour rides out in rural areas near where we live in Tennessee. Would you be so kind as to recommend an app that we can use so she can follow me, so to speak. Some of the apps I have looked at say 'that there is a heavy drain on battery while in continued use'. Please take that into your consideration. Kindly - Don Simmons

Find Friends is included with the OS. Just invite each other, and you will always be able to find each other.

Or use Glympse, a free tracking app. That's what we use.

This might be a good reason to get a Garmin Edge 510 or 810. These have tracking features.

I think you should consider endomondo that she can follow real time and have not tried yet but hrm display too so she could monitor your he real time. Battery isn't an issue as an energiser battery gives me at least 4 hours extra in a small pack

Try mapmyride. Its free in app store and she can track you live when you turn your live tracking on in the application settings. You can also turn the screen off while using the apps. I"ve been using this app for close to 3 years now. Keep riding and be safe.

Garmin 510/810
map my ride.
iphone has find my iPhone app ... just have to download and enable in the iCloud setting.

Same question but android desire S here....don't have money for a expensive garmen, battery life's not an issue as I have a spare battery fully charged anywys, not that if ever needed it as I find I can run strava for over 6 hours without an issue.

Glympse works on Android too.

Glympse is good. Will show the last place it had a reading. Hits the battery fairly hard.

Find my Friends is also good and is easier on the battery. Depends on your phone being in the network and being able to be interrogated. So if you were not interrogated recently, it won't get you in the vicinity.

Cyclemeter will tweet your position on a map every so often (interval user defined). Plus Cyclemeter gives you all the features of a bike computer and exercise log plus more.

J.

Another vote for Glympse. I use it regularly on my rides, many over three hours. (Also have some heart issues, five bypasses in '05) This reassures the wife I'm still turning circles.

The recent RoadID eCrumbs app for iOS is also good. It has a few features targeted at athletes, such as a "stationary alert" option to notify your select contacts (up to 5) if you stop moving while training. The main function is that it notifies your select contacts when you begin training, and provides a link for them to view your track online. It also has an option to build lock screen wallpaper with your key emergency contact and other info.

It's not been too bad in my experience on a Galaxy S4. 3+hrs and the battery is down less than 15%. That's with no other apps running and the display off. Turning off Bluetooth and Wifi can further reduce power consumption, I believe.

+1

My wife and I use Map My ride for this. It costs about 10% of the battery per hour, so it should be fine for 2-4 hour rides. Alternately, if you buy a Garmin, it will offer live tracking for far less battery use.

Live tracking with a Garmin 510 or 810 is via bluetooth to your smartphone. As such, it does consume the smartphone battery. IDK if it's more or less than Glympse. I suspect it's similar or more.

Offloading the GPS and only using the phone to relay the data points should be less battery drain on the phone. it would only use the cell radio which is already running anyway and Bluetooth is low power compared to the GPS running...assuming the user doesn't have location running on the phone by default.

I have a Garmin 510. Live tracking with the Garmin uses fraction of the cell phone battery that Map My Ride/Strava/Endomodo et al do, because the phone isn't having to simultaneously transmit, locate, and map. It's just transmitting coordinates from the 510.

FWIW, The one advantage that Map My Ride has over the other systems is that if will notify my wife with an audible alarm when I start a ride/run/workout, even if she isn't actively using the app. This is handy if I take a ride while she's at work, or if we're in different cities.

So I use the 510 to map and track all my rides (It is synced with my HR and cadence moinitors), but also use MR when I specifically want to give my wife a heads up that I'm out on the road.

While we're at it, though, I upload my rides to Strava, because there are more serious riders/racers/clubs there. I get a better feel for how I'm progressing compared to the guys I want to ride like.

Horses for courses. All the apps have their niche.

BB

Glympse only periodically transmits coordinates which it gets from the phone's GPS, and it's not using power communicating with a Garmin via bluetooth. It's a small battery drain so far in my experience. MMR, Strava, etc may well have higher power drain as they do much more that what Glympse does.