Alternative to Life360?
from powermaker450@discuss.tchncs.de to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 16:41
https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/22449477

I want to set up location sharing for my family/friends, but

Any recommendations?

Edit for those who find this later: I ended up choosing Traccar suggested by @mbirth@lemmy.ml, but big thanks to everyone who brought some ideas to the table! I’ll leave my configs here.

My Docker Compose file

My traccar.xml

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

otter@lemmy.ca on 22 Sep 16:52 next collapse

Some I’ve heard mentioned include

  • OwnTracks
  • Home assistant with nabu casa

I haven’t explored either

retro@infosec.pub on 22 Sep 22:30 collapse

I’ve been using OwnTracks for a while and it works really well.

mbirth@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 17:23 next collapse

After Google Latitude shut down, I went with OwnTracks logging into the light-weight php-owntracks-recorder.

I’ve since migrated that to Traccar (normally used for car fleet management) on server-side and am still using OwnTracks to push the location updates from my iPhone.

powermaker450@discuss.tchncs.de on 22 Sep 19:20 collapse

OwnTracks setup was a bit confusing to me and I never got it working. traccar looks pretty nice though, I’ll check it out!

mbirth@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 22:39 collapse

I’m using OwnTracks in HTTP mode as I couldn’t be bothered with MQTT. For that, you only need the HTTP(S) endpoint/URL to log to, optionally user credentials and then it’s a “TrackerID”, “UserID” and “DeviceID” so the receiving server knows who’s talking.

Side note: Traccar uses different ports to receive different protocols. For OwnTracks protocol, the correct port is 5144.

My OwnTracks configuration is basically like this:

  • TrackerID: 1
  • DeviceID: Phone
  • UserID: mb
  • URL: mytraccarserver.com:5144 (the port itself is HTTP-only IIRC, but I’ve mapped Traefik Proxy in front of it which handles HTTPS)
powermaker450@discuss.tchncs.de on 23 Sep 00:20 collapse

I tried both MQTT and just the plain HTTP variant, and I couldn’t get either to work. I’ve fully settled on the latter you mentioned, Traccar. it’s pretty much what I’ve wanted: self-hosted, easy to set up, beautiful web interface. Thanks for the suggestions!

0as16@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 17:33 next collapse

My family has moved to www.zood.xyz and it has been pretty solid. github.com/zood/ is the github repo for it.

ad_on_is@lemm.ee on 22 Sep 19:55 next collapse

are they even actively developing it? repo seems abandoned

helenslunch@feddit.nl on 22 Sep 22:31 collapse

I would use this but unfortunately it is Android-only.

GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 17:49 next collapse

There’s an osmand telegram plugin. Someone may want to rewrite it for matrix?

Unmapped@lemmy.ml on 22 Sep 19:06 next collapse

I was trying out Locus and seem pretty good. But looks like its not maintained anymore. ☹️

AbidanYre@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 22:09 collapse

Damnit, I just learned about locus a month or so ago.

tekeous@usenet.lol on 22 Sep 20:24 next collapse

Apple Find My is goated

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 22 Sep 21:22 next collapse

It is Apple exclusive and can’t be turned off

ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world on 23 Sep 09:25 collapse

It’s shit for automating things and especially useless outside the Apple ecosystem, but it does offer the option to turn off sharing.

Apple ID -> Find My -> Share My Location

Since it’s closed source it’s possible they still capture the location and I would t trust it, but in practice anyone that you’ve allowed to see your location (for an hour, day, while on-route) gets a “location unknown” on their app of the toggle is off.

powermaker450@discuss.tchncs.de on 22 Sep 22:57 next collapse

for two reasons, I can’t use this.

  1. Android. Me, my family. Our past phones were, our current phones are, and future phones will be Android phones.
  2. I’m looking for whatever it may be to be OSS and self-hostable (if the community name didn’t give that implication away)
Custodian1623@lemmy.world on 23 Sep 22:48 collapse

findmydevice on fdroid. you can use encrypted pings to your server at set intervals to track each device

desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 23 Sep 02:03 collapse

open source?

helpmyusernamewontfi@lemmy.today on 22 Sep 21:06 next collapse

Not sure if this will help, but find my device on F-Droid is awesome. You can use generic SMS and send “fmd locate” or you can use third party apps such as signal. This makes it so it’ll only trigger whenever you receive that text message rather it running 24/7

It allows you to setup a trusted set of contacts who can then send you a text message “fmd locate”, and it’ll reply with an openstreetmaps link showing where you are. It’s not real time tho

And you can disable it simply by turning off your location

thegreekgeek@midwest.social on 22 Sep 23:02 next collapse

Oh this is cool! It reminds me of aeGis from CyanogenMod back in the day.

LodeMike@lemmy.today on 23 Sep 04:41 collapse

How do you use Signal?

Edit: oh with notifications. Neat.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip on 22 Sep 21:22 next collapse

Maybe some DIY solution with the Termux API and a web server?

KrapKake@lemmy.world on 22 Sep 23:48 next collapse

Didn’t see it mentioned here but check out Keep Alive.

f-droid.org/packages/io.keepalive.android/

aordogvan@lemmy.world on 24 Sep 02:55 collapse

I’m also using Traccar. Found this yesterday and was going to give it a try. It’s called Dawarich.