Verizon's Life360 Family Locator is a free app that helps families and close friends stay connected by creating a “Circle” of loved ones in real time. The app also includes a full location history, which gives an overview of recent activity. The built-in "panic" option sends out an emergency signal to designated emails, text, and phones with your exact location of your Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.
Life360 Places lets you save your favorite locations so that friends and family will get automatic alerts when you come and go. Messaging, location sharing, and check-ins are all Circle specific so no one will see anything they don’t need to. There’s actually a lot more to Life360 than meets the eye including features you might not know about. Here are four of them.
1.
It has crash
detection technology-Those who use
Life360 in the U.S. can take advantage of crash detection* and emergency
response as part of a premium plan called, “Driver Protect.” Through this plan,
the Life360 app can detect if you’ve been in a major collision either as a
passenger or as a driver – and someone from Life360 will contact you.
They’ll also
notify everyone in your Circle, as well as your designated emergency contacts,
and dispatch 911 emergency services if needed (such as if you’re unable to
respond). Essentially, this patented crash detection* technology uses the
sensors in your phone to detect a significant impact whenever the vehicle is
moving at least 25 miles per hour. It’s not meant for minor accidents such as
small fender-benders.
2.
You can get
real-time directions to Circle members-
One of my favorite (and lesser-known) features is tapping a family member’s
avatar to get directions straight to that person. Sometimes your children don’t
know or can’t give you and exact address so this comes in handy if you’re on
pick up duty especially if your children are at a new friend’s house, new
practice field, or leaving a crowded concert.
3.
You can access
weekly distracted driving reports-Life360
isn’t just a tool to see where family members are (to avoid the constant “Where
are you?” texts) or for roadside assistance and crash detection. The app can
also detect potentially unsafe driving behaviors, such as phone usage while
behind the wheel, driving speed, hard braking, and rapid acceleration. The best
defense is a strong offense, and these reports are great to use in a
preventative discussion about driver safety before the keys are handed over.
This
information is shared with the Circle as a weekly report, and the info can be
used for conversations tied to responsible driving. Some parents even use these
reports to strike deals with their teenage children. They can have the car more
often and perhaps be allowed to stay out a little late providing they deliver a
good driving report card. Life360 can even be used when an adult child is
traveling a long distance.
4.
It provides
24/7 roadside assistance-For less
serious situations on the road, everyone in your Driver Protect Circle has
access to 24/7 roadside assistance through Life360.Simply tap the ‘Call
Roadside Assistance’ button in the ‘Safety’ tab (previously located in the
upper left hand menu) to connect you to a live representative over the phone.
As you might
expect, Life360’s live representative will know who you are and exactly where
you are, in order to assist in roadside situations such as towing, flat tires,
engine jump-starts, running out of gas, emergency weather advice, minor
accidents, and being locked out of your vehicle, to name some of the more
common calls. Life360 says in 2018, the company detected 2,100 collisions,
provided 1,000 tows, 290 jump starts, and helped with 230 flat tires and 500
lock-outs.
“Real-time location sharing helps keep your loved
ones safe.” (Anonymous)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“5 Things You Didn’t Know
about Life360” by Marc
Saltzman
·
“Four ways to share your exact location with family (and why)” By Scott Webster
My wife, Bobbi, uses
this.
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