letting others know where you are - location tracking

Introduction

all campers and hikers should let someone they trust know where they are going and when they are expected to return (do not put this info on social media until you have returned!)
many overnight hiking trails require you to log your details in a book at the start of the trail
purchasing food and petrol on your credit card can also signal to your family your recent locations although they would need access to your credit card online account
now that we all have mobile devices, we can set up automatic location tracking to allow trusted friends or family see on a map where the device was last used when it was turned on, and this may also help if you happen to lose your device

online websites which say they can locate a phone by its phone number or IMEI number are nearly all scams - DO NOT USE THEM OR SIGN UP FOR THEM!

you can't set up location tracking for your device after you have lost it if it is not already set up!
- in certain circumstances, police can access your device location tracking history from the mobile phone providers

if you have lost an Apple device, you can log into icloud.com on someone else's phone to try to find your lost device if you have set up Find My .. on your phone previously and you remember your log in details

this is perhaps the easiest to set up
just go onto Google Maps app on your device, go to settings and select Location sharing
- you can set a share with someone for the next 1 hour or “until you turn this off”
- you then choose a contact to share your location and you can then also email someone else that link
- the user can not only see your device's location on Google Maps but it also displays the battery charge level of the device which is very handy!
- unfortunately you cannot get notified when that person is actually checking your location
you will need to ensure your phone's location sharing settings is set to allow Google Maps to access it ALWAYS (not just when using Google Maps app) if you want this to be automatic and not relying on you running Google Maps.

this is only useful if either it is accessed from another device on THAT account, or the user logs into your account's iCloud online, or you have set up a location share with that person
it displays last location, battery charge and allows you to play a sound on that device so you can find it (requires that device to be turned on and accessing the internet)
unfortunately you cannot get notified when that person is actually checking your location

see navigation management for hikers for more details
these usually rely on you sending a signal or txt message to your friends or family (or in some cases to emergency services)
you will need to be able to direct your device to the satellite
the latest iPhones (iPhone 14 and later) have an emergency satellite capability
satellite phones
- have been very handy for remote travellers but are quite expensive
satellite internet devices
- these would allow your mobile device to connect to the internet and allow location tracking as well as normal phone use
- eg. Starlink relatively expensive but probably much better value and versatility than a satellite phone

EPIRBs allow you to send radio beacon signals to emergency services to let them know you are lost or incapacitated and help them find you - although this can take many hours