tracking a kids phone but the kids phone has no internet
- Thread starter SkeeterUK
- Start date
I don't know about iPhones but on Android you have options in the location section of the settings that allow you to tell it what it can use to get your location and you can set it to use the GPS chip only which won't use the network.
Cerberus still needs mobile data to send info though I *think*, you can just activate it via SMS. With iOS being more locked down, there's very little you will be able to do to achieve this beyond what iCloud offers.
You may be able to get an app that tracks GPS location, but that would just be a history of GPS co-ordinates on the phone itself. You'd have to access the phone to retrieve the info, and then you'd still have to translate the co-ordinates into map locations - so not exactly the quickest job in the world...
You may be able to get an app that tracks GPS location, but that would just be a history of GPS co-ordinates on the phone itself. You'd have to access the phone to retrieve the info, and then you'd still have to translate the co-ordinates into map locations - so not exactly the quickest job in the world...
Pure GPS does not require data but it can be "primed" using a system called Assisted GPS where it will download data that can help speed up GPS lock. Without this GPS can technically take up to 10 minutes to lock on (although if you use GPS often you don't have to do this every time).
Phones also know their rough location by cell triangulation or at worst, they know the cell tower they are linked to if they can only see a single tower. Knowing this you can get an area positioning but it can be super huge if it only sees one tower and isn't generally preferred. Unfortunately it needs data to be able to turn the cell tower identity into a geographic zone.
The last method is wifi - Google has a way of converting the wifi AP SSID/MAC into a geolocation, neat but only on Android I think. Apple might use skyhook
As we can see from the above, you're basically hoping for a combo of pure GPS and wifi but only the wifi can "broadcast" your position as it's the only one where data can leave the phone (we are assuming she is connected to the wifi network - this isn't actually required in Android for positioning to work). Scottland has it right that you're basically looking at a logging app considering your no network data requirement. You could do it with something like google+ location broadcast but it will only work when she is able to transmit data so this would likely be a friends wifi.
The cheap and cheerful option is she moves to a payg with data plan and then she can use pretty much anything in this area.
https://www.lociloci.com/en/guide/ is the closest thing i could find that does it without internet data or wifi but it costs a fiver a month i dunno if sis wants to pay due to being a house mum with 3 kids on her own.
I was hoping maybe to find a free version of something that lociloci does by tracking the phone by carrier signal at the towers kinda thing i think it does or reads the gps of the phone in question.
The whole no internet requirement is that she doesnt want her to go online with her phone as in facebook etc or racking up bills for stuff.
I was hoping maybe to find a free version of something that lociloci does by tracking the phone by carrier signal at the towers kinda thing i think it does or reads the gps of the phone in question.
The whole no internet requirement is that she doesnt want her to go online with her phone as in facebook etc or racking up bills for stuff.