What is Life360 Used For?
Life360 is a location-sharing and family safety app that helps you stay on top of each family member's whereabouts and monitor their driving habits. The app works flawlessly on Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad) devices and is easy to use, thanks to the intuitive and neatly organized user interface.
The Life360 app notifies you when a family member arrives at or leaves a designated location. You can set the app to notify you when kids arrive at or leave school or when the house help arrives at the grocery store. Family members can also request roadside assistance in the event they have a dead car battery, flat tire, or run out of gas mid-trip.
In addition to family and driving safety, Life360 offers digital safety tools. For example, you can configure the app to actively scour the dark web for data associated with your email address and alert you when it finds a hit.
Pros and Cons of Life360
Pros:
- Accurate real-time tracking
- Driving habit monitoring
- Effective place alerts
- Crash detection
- Helpful family, driving, and digital safety features
Cons:
- Failed security tests
- Data privacy concerns
- Doesn’t detect all crashes
- No offline mode
Life360 Features Walkthrough: What Does Life360 Do?
Before writing this review, we spent several days using Life360 to discover how its features work. The information in this section is based on Life360’s performance during our testing. Let's walk you through the app's capabilities.
Ease of Use
Life360 is easy to set up and use. Every step — from creating circles and assigning roles to setting up geofences and adding emergency contacts — is easy to accomplish.
The best part about using Life360 is that kids and non-tech-savvy members don’t have to flip a switch to track their location. As long as Life360 is properly configured, it tracks location in the background without the user lifting a finger.
Creating a circle and inviting members is a breeze for the head of the family. A circle is a private group of people with whom you share location data and communicate through the Life360 app. Once you invite a member to your circle, they only need to accept the invitation and set up their phone for location tracking.
For optimal performance and accuracy, every circle member must:
- Turn on the Life360 drive detection feature
- Activate crash detection
- Disable power saving mode on their smartphone
- Enable smartphone location (“always on”), motion activity, and push notifications
The circle administrator (admin) must also add ‘places’ to enhance Life360’s tracking accuracy and efficiency. The places can be any address the family frequently visits, such as school, church, grocery store, park, or shopping mall.
Life360 allows you to set geofences, or virtual boundaries, around these places. The geofence can be as small as 250 feet or as big as 2 miles in radius. The app uses geofences to trigger place alerts and notifications.
Lastly, add emergency contacts or people who will be notified in case of a crash or a circle member triggers an alert. The contacts can be anyone, including people outside your circle.
Location Tracking
Life360 uses a global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, and cellular networks to track a member’s location. When members are in urban areas that have a high density of Wi-Fi access points, the app uses Wi-Fi to pinpoint their location. Life360 uses GPS or cellular signals to locate each member's position outside urban areas.
During our testing, Life360 pinpointed each member's location accurately. The app also updated their location every few seconds, giving us real-time updates about the members' whereabouts.
Remember that the accuracy level depends heavily on the signal strengths. When the signal is obscured, such as when members traverse regions outside their cellular range, you might not get real-time location updates.
Life360 gives you peace of mind when family members are out and about. When you open the home user interface, you can see each member's location on a map. You can tap on the avatar to zoom in on the member’s precise location and gather details, such as when they arrived at the address and how long they have been there.
Place alerts notify you when a member arrives at and leaves a designated place. This removes the need to constantly open the Life360 app to monitor a member's location. For example, you will be notified when kids get home from school or start warming up on a football field.
Life360 recently added the Bubble feature, which adds a little bit of privacy to location tracking without sacrificing safety. Bubble temporarily shows your general location without giving away the exact address. For instance, circle members can see you’re downtown but can’t pinpoint your exact location.
Driving Habits Monitoring
Life360 monitors the driving behaviors of circle members by using drive detection technology and phone movements. The app tracks behaviors that put the lives of circle members at risk while on the road. A few variables tracked include:
- Phone usage: Know when a circle member texts or uses their phone while driving.
- Speeding: If a member exceeds 80 Mph for at least 30 seconds, Life360 records that as overspeeding.
- Hard braking: The app shows how many hard braking instances a member had while driving during a specific period of time.
- Rapid acceleration: Life360 shows you when and where the circle members are hitting the gas too fast.
Life360 monitors phone orientation changes and activities like locking and unlocking the screen only if the vehicle is moving over 15 mph. These conditions prevent Life360 from recording phone usage when the vehicle is stationary or when a member uses the phone through a hands-free device.
To detect driving, the vehicle must move more than half a mile at speeds exceeding 15 mph. The Life360 drive detection feature must also be on, and the phone’s battery must have more than 10% charge.
Safety Features
Life360 also offers an array of safety features. The standout safety feature is the SOS button, which helps get members out of danger or an emergency. Members can utilize the SOS feature if they were to get lost in the woods, find themselves on an unfamiliar street, or have a tire burst on the freeway.
The app alerts circle members, “Samson needs help,” prompting them to take action. Life360 also has an emergency dispatcher on standby to send police to your location. Once you are out of danger, enter your PIN code to cancel the SOS.
Another helpful feature is crash detection, which relies on phone sensors to detect any significant impact when the vehicle is moving over 25 mph. If the sensors pick up a collision, Life360 will contact the driver or person involved.
If the member fails to respond or needs help, Life360 alerts the emergency contacts. Circle members can tap “get direction” to find the shortest route to the location of the distressed members. Life360’s live agent will also dispatch emergency services and medical assistance to the collision.
The only problem is that Life360 may miss some rear-end collisions, fender-benders, and other minor accidents. The app may also fail to pick up on major collisions due to algorithm errors, phone sensor errors, network outages, and crash locations being outside cellular range.
Life360’s offers travel support which gives family members peace of mind while traveling. The agents help with emergency travel arrangements, such as car rentals, airline booking, and hotel reservations. If you lose luggage, Life360 agents will track it for you, and if you lose travel documents, they help replace them.
Beyond family safety, Life360 provides essential digital safety features such as:
- Identity theft protection
- Stolen phone protection
- Data breach alerts
- Credit monitoring
Reporting
Life360 offers two reports: family driving summary and individual driver report. The family driving report shows a weekly summary of your circle’s driving habits which include speeding, hard braking, rapid acceleration, and phone usage. The report also shows the circle's total miles driven, trips, and top speed.
You can tap on a circle member’s profile to view information about their driving behavior. The individual report allows you to examine specific details such as when and where a hard braking event occurred.
Life360 also shows a daily summary of each members’ trips. When you tap on the trip card, you can see the driving route taken and when the trip began and ended. You can also view the member’s driving behavior during the trip.
Life360 Privacy Concerns For Business
According to Life360’s privacy policy, the vendor collects personally identifiable information, such as device information, IP address, and device identification. It also gathers your location and personal data when you use the in-app messaging feature.
Life360 claims it may disclose the information “to select third parties and subsidiaries,” as the privacy policy outlines. While the privacy policy doesn’t state whether Life360 sells personal information, we have reason to believe the entity sells user data.
A clause in the policy claims that Life360 doesn’t “sell personal information of members they know to be children.” The hidden message in this statement is that if you’re an adult, the vendor may sell your personal information.
While you can opt out of Life360’s personal information sales by turning off the ‘personal information sales’ button, you can’t be sure the vendor will keep its word. In June 2023, the Markup revealed that the company had been selling data regarding users’ (including kids’) whereabouts.
According to the report, Life360 has been a firehose of data for renowned companies such as X-Mode, Cuebiq, Safegraph, and Allstate’s Arity. Some employees from these companies have admitted that without Life360 data, their employer's operation wouldn't run smoothly.
Life360 Pricing
Life360 has a free version and two paid plans: Gold and Platinum. The free plan gives you a two-day location history and two places with unlimited alerts. You also get SOS help alerts and crash detection, but other features are restricted.
The paid version offers a seven-day free trial, which allows you to get a first-hand feel for the premium features. After the trial, you can opt for monthly or annual billing.
Below is a table of Life360’s pricing:
Should You Use Life360 For Business?
The answer is a big NO. Based on our analysis, the only reason a business owner would consider Life360 would be to utilize its location-tracking capability. While Life360 tracks location with great precision, the risks of using the app for business outweigh the benefits.
First and foremost, the app is meant for personal use, so it lacks some essential features for businesses. The app doesn’t offer team management, business reporting, mileage tracking, or time tracking tools. You also don’t get a web dashboard to perform complex tasks.
If Life360’s limited capability doesn’t deter you, the privacy and security issues will. In 2022, the Markup put Life360 through a series of security tests by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), which advocates app security standards. While the app passed 11 tests, it failed six critical tests.
The failed security tests and the privacy issues should be enough to put you off. Using Life360 will leave your company’s and employees’ data at risk. Remember that employees can sue you for failing to protect their data — the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) lawsuit is a good case in point.
If you'd rather not risk your employees' data falling into the hands of third parties or malicious actors, get a location-tracking app that prioritizes privacy, such as Timeero.
Is There a Better Location Tracking App Than Life360?
Yes, there are better Life360 alternatives for businesses, like Timeero. Timeero is a reliable GPS tracking app designed exclusively for business use. The app delivers accurate location, time, and mileage tracking without violating privacy, labor, or GPS tracking laws.
Let's get into the details of what Timeero has to offer.
Real-Time Location Tracking
Timeero uses GPS tracking technology to verify each employee's location. The app refreshes location data every few minutes, giving you real-time updates on individual employee whereabouts. The app compiles the location details and displays them on the “who’s working" dashboard, giving the manager a bird's-eye view of clocked-in employees at all job sites.
With this information, managers can schedule and dispatch field employees based on their proximity to a job site or customer address. Knowing when employees wander outside of their designated job site and asking them to get back to work can significantly improve team productivity.
Even when employees are in remote areas or out of cellular range, Timeero will effectively track their location and store data locally, thanks to Timeero’s excellent offline tracking capability. Once the employee’s device is reconnected to the internet, Timeero syncs the data to the cloud almost immediately.
Timeero Values Data Privacy
Unions and lawmakers are joining hands to abolish invasive employee monitoring. Some lawmakers have proposed the Stop Spying Bosses Act, which suggests a raft of measures to end invasive surveillance. Should the bill pass, off-duty data collection will be unlawful.
As far as protecting employee privacy goes, Timeero is already ahead of the curve. The app tracks employees only when they're on the clock, protecting worker privacy. If an employee forgets to clock out, Timeero sends a reminder to prompt them to do so.
Timeero also adheres to industry regulations like HIPAA, which requires businesses to use apps that safeguard protected health information (PHI). Timeero is one of the best HIPAA-compliant caregiver management software. You can use Timeero to track the location of your per-diem nurses without worrying about violating HIPAA regulations.
Segmented Tracking
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Segmented Tracking is a unique feature for businesses that want to get more insights into field employees’ trips. The feature tracks employees' trips and segments them based on their stops.
Suppose you schedule a sales rep to visit five accounts on a specific day. Segmented tracking helps ascertain the sales rep's visits and compute their time at each address.
The representative will only need to clock in once at the start of their shift. Timeero will track their trip to show you when they arrived and left each customer's address. Segmented tracking automatically computes the time spent with each account, total daily mileage, and total driving time.
IRS-Compliant Mileage Logs
If your mobile workforce uses personal vehicles, you must reimburse them for the business miles they drive. Timeero uses motion-detection technology and a minimum speed threshold to record miles accurately. The default speed threshold is 4 MPH, low enough to capture every drive.
By recording accurate mileage logs, Timeero enables you to reimburse employees fairly, significantly boosting their morale. In addition, Timeero’s mileage logs are IRS-compliant, meaning you can use them to claim tax write-offs.
Accurate Time Tracking
Timeero helps you track time accurately and remunerate employees fairly without violating FSLA regulations. Features like geofencing and facial recognition eradicate off-site clock-ins, buddy punching, and other time-theft tactics. Timeero also has tools like the break tracker and overtime calculator, which help businesses enforce labor laws in their respective states and countries.
Life360 App Review: Best for Personal, Not Business Use
Life360 is one of the most reliable family safety and tracking apps. In addition to location tracking, the app offers features geared towards driving and digital safety, such as SOS, disaster response, breakdown assistance, and crash detection.
While the app enhances family security, it does raise some serious privacy concerns for businesses. The app's failed security test and the vendor's constant habit of auctioning user data prove that Life360 isn’t ideal for business.
If you want to accurately track field employees without violating any privacy or labor laws, use Timeero. The app provides features to track employee location, time, and mileage in full compliance. Start a 14-day free trial to get a first-hand feel for Timeero’s features risk-free.
Life360 Review FAQs
Is Life360 Accurate?
Yes, Life360 accurately tracks the location of your loved ones.
Does Life360 Track Speed?
Yes, Life360 has a driving monitoring system that tracks speeds during each trip.
What Does Life360 Show?
Life360 shows each member's location and allows you to pinpoint details like a circle member’s top speed, rapid acceleration, hard braking, and phone usage.
What Does Life360 Track?
Life360 tracks a user’s location and driving habits.
How Does Life360 Handle User Privacy and Data Security?
Life360 collects sensitive personal information and may sell user data to third parties.
