I like the fact that my Android phone records my location timeline from Google Maps, but the fact that this is stored in Google servers creeps me out.

I know you can download the entire location history database from Google so I was planning on building a custom app to store and browse this data.

I was also curious if there would be the possibility of making the phone send locations to this app instead of Google, but I don’t know much about Android and I don’t know if this would be possible.

What do you think about it? Is there already an app like this? Do you think this is a good idea?

  • matto@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    7 months ago

    I’ve tried it in iOS, and spent a lot of time fiddling with the settings, but for the life of me I can’t get a decent resolution from it. I get very distant points and I was no able to improve it, so I gave up :(

    • chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.netEnglish
      3·
      7 months ago

      I played with it forever ago, but from memory, that is most likely due to the way it is designed to conserve battery. The app waits for significant location update notifications from the OS and then sends the updated location to the tracking server. It doesn’t (or I should say it didn’t as I don’t know about now) actively poll the location on fixed intervals.

    • LifeBandit666@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      7 months ago

      I took have set up and run Owntracks in the past and found it lacking. I can’t remember why, but I do remember thinking it was a bit shit

    • drudoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      I’ve used it for 5 years on iOS with zero issues at all. Set it to ‘Move’ and you will get great resolution.