My children are fast reaching the age where they’re doing a lot more things independently of my wife and me. I’ve been in conversations in the past where parents have confessed to putting AirTags on their children’s bags and I have to confess I scoffed at the level of micro-watching. But now that mine are a few years older, I’m having increasing sympathy with the idea.
That’s where the Life360 app that I recently discovered has come in so handy. More than just a simple locating app, Life360 is able to protect families like never before with advanced driving, digital, and location safety features.
So before you ask, “When will you be home?” or “Have you landed yet?” Life360 will be able to give you all the information you need. With place alerts, you will be notified as soon as a loved one returns home from school, leaves work, or starts warming up on the practice field.
Homescreen heroes
This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps that we couldn’t live without. Read them all here.
If someone you know is flying around the world, then it’s nice to know not only that they’re safe but also when they’ve landed. This might just be for peace of mind, but it might also let you know that it’s time to go and pick them up. You can say goodbye to flight trackers and waiting for the call. With landing notifications, you’ll immediately receive a notification when their flight touches down.
Driving safety
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 1.9 million are injured in car accidents in the US every year. With that number of crashes, it pays to be prepared. The Life360 app is able to detect collisions over 25mph and instantly reach out to the driver or passengers. If they don’t get a response, then the app will alert pre-assigned people and all emergency contacts with the vehicle’s location.
I once had a friend whose wife was saved because of a similar feature that was built into his Range Rover. I remember thinking that I would never be able to gain access to the same life-saving technology but now with Life360, I can.
But it’s not just life-threatening problems that this app solves; if your car breaks down and you need help, then Life360 can send a trained professional right to you — anytime, anywhere. You’ll need either a gold or platinum subscription to qualify for free towing, but it’s another perk of the app.
Tracking your precious possessions
Along with monitoring your family and friends, Life360 lets you track belongings, including keys, wallets, and phones. To take advantage of this functionality, you’ll need to purchase some Life360 Tiles. These Bluetooth trackers connect directly to the app and are small enough to attach to a variety of different objects.
As well as more everyday uses such as finding your wallet or bike, you can also trigger an SOS alert to your loved ones. Heaven forbid that you find yourself in this sort of situation but if you do, it’s good to know that you can quickly notify people.
I also love the ability to ring the Tile from the app as well as ringing my phone from the Tile. Your phone will even ring when it’s on silent mode. There’s no reason to ever lose anything ever again!
Upgrading to a subscription really pays off
The free version of Life360 provides a very limited two days of location history and only two places with unlimited alerts. Additionally, you’ll get crash detection and SOS help alerts. If you’re finding yourself limited by the free version or annoyed by the ads, then you’ll need one of the premium subscriptions.
There are options for silver, gold, and platinum with an increasing amount of functionality. One potentially life-saving feature is emergency services dispatch, which is only available on gold or platinum packages. These will set you back $149.99/£99.99 and $249.99/£169.99 per year, respectively.
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paulo.n.hatton@gmail.com (Paul Hatton)
