Find my Friends - is this how it's supposed to work?

[AppleLight]

So I really loved the announcement of Find my Friends, only to be slightly disappointed when I found out that it doesn't show the 'friend' moving, just the last known location.

So if someone takes a wrong turn to your house, you wouldn't know until you pressed refresh and see the dot move to it's new location.

Is that how it works for you guys too? Or do you see it moving?

 

[r2shyyou]

Yup, that's how it works for me (have to refresh to update location).

 

[sakau2007]

Yep. I think this is the best way to do it for now. You can refresh as often as you want. If it was refreshing automatically all the time I think our battery life would really, really crumble.

 

[SoloStyle]

If you're looking for something to track a friend in real-time as they make their way to your house or elsewhere, you might want to check out an app called Glympse.

 

[c14nhl]

This is exactly how it's meant to work and has the advantage of not blasting your battery completely when it's on.

I noticed when searched for my Mum's phone, the GPS was activated when I refreshed my screen. So if your looking at your screen and you get the icon pop up without you doing anything, someone is checking where you are.

 

[AppleLight]

Ok, thanks guys. Yea I suppose it makes sense of the battery thing.

Glympse eh? thanks

 

[davehutch]

Ok, thanks guys. Yea I suppose it makes sense of the battery thing.

Glympse eh? thanks

Or "Friend Radar" or "Google Latitude" (Google works on all kinds of phones if your friends don't have an iPhone)

 

[SunnyFL]

Yup, that's how it works for me (have to refresh to update location).

That does not always update the location either. I have refreshed several times & the location of the friend does not change even though I know that he is moving. Sometimes it takes longer then other times to update the last known location I've noticed.

 

[davehutch]

That does not always update the location either. I have refreshed several times & the location of the friend does not change even though I know that he is moving. Sometimes it takes longer then other times to update the last known location I've noticed.

It's the same app, but repackaged of the old Find My iPhone if you used it to find somebody else.
I used to see where my wife was on her journey home using her Apple ID and that was never particularly reliable because she has a 3GS and the GPS isn't as good.
Throw in a few privacy options and you've got Find My Friends.

Try the two I mentioned above. They work well, as long as the phone at the other end has a decent signal or GPS location

 

[james92se]

Okay so I thought I was the only one who this did not work for. My friend also has a 4S and he is able to see me "real time". He is also able to see his wife "real time". When I'm driving down the street he can literally watch my little dot move along his map live.

Why would his work like this yet others of us have to manually refresh?