Announcing new app: RTT2

[happyplanet]

Hi,
actually I'm not sure how Street View can be launched directly. Maybe I will integrate StreetView directly into the tracker.

I was surprised to find that the app "StreetView List Free" figured it out. With Google Maps installed, it offers the option to launch directly into the StreetView page of the "Maps" app, or launches the separate -- but apparently integrated -- app "Street View" for each of their canned data items. There must be some trick in how the external apps are called, as only those two appear in the list, no others. I don't know if you have the ability to look into the coding of that app, but a clue might be there. Direct integration of StreetView would be great if you want to take that route. Thanks!

[happyplanet]

Hi,
I cannot add too many additional menu items - otherwise the menu will become confusing.
You cannot follow several users at the same time. And the tracker cannot switch between them either when the first is finished because the tracker simply does not know when the track is finished. This is no navigation tool. It's just a recording and broadcasting tool.

OK, thanks for clarifying. Your app is perfect for me, as I'm not really following tracks -- either future or past -- but more watching the real time locations of my friends when we are all on the move, say to tag up at the beach or something. I've learned by experimenting that I can have multiple map windows open and set each one to follow a friend (who's marker remains in the center of that map). I can have a main map centered on me and zoomed way out as a kind of reference map that shows everyone. I don't know of anything else out there -- Android or iOS based -- that comes anywhere close to offering that. You've got a great vision of how things should be in the realm of real time tracking.

[happyplanet]

As Real Time GPS Tracker was initially designed for Android 1.6 I decided to create a new app which will use some of the cool UI features provided by Android 4. The new app will be available for all devices running Android 4 or higher.

Naming:
The new app is called "Real Time Tracker 2" (I know quite boring). I kicked out "GPS" from its name to make it shorter.

Feedback I'm especially interested:
- Is the user interface easy to use or is there anything confusing?
- Is there anything in the user interface I should improve?
- Is there anything in the user interface which is even worse than in RTT1?
- Is the setup wizard useful? Will it help new users or will it confuse them? If the setup wizard is not displayed automatically you can start it in the settings.
- Are there any crashes?

I'm curious about your questions and your feedback.

Regards,
Florian

Greetings again Florian!

Sorry if this sounds a bit grumbling, but you asked for honest feedback on the RTT2 user interface, and below is one of the main reasons I still choose the original app over RTT2 when I’m on the road driving:

Your RTT2, although taking a bit of getting used to over the original, does have many new features which are quite handy. One drawback I have notice is that I’ve lost quite a bit of screen real estate when operating in full screen mode. In the original app, I could touch the full screen icon in the bottom and immediately go to full screen with a tiny banner across the top. Now, by default, every time I open RTT2, I get a thick white banner, followed by a constant yellow warning (GPS disabled. To improve accuracy enable GPS.) which is totally wrong if I am following others, as my GPS status does not affect their accuracy. Under that is the info banner with Viewers, Speed, etc. There is no quick way to shrink that massive screen block with a single click. That’s a real shame, especially now that we can have two, three, or even four small maps on the screen.

So I’d like to request you do whatever it takes to get us back to a full screen view toggle. Having to click the three dots in the upper right, choose Map Size from the menu, then select Maximum from the list is way too much. Besides, it still doesn’t turn off the yellow banner warning unless I activate my own GPS!

I sent you an idea earlier to allow repeat tapping in the middle of the white top banner to toggle through the three different Map Size modes, and that’s something I could easily do while driving. Although the white banner is twice as thick as the one on the original app, I see where you need that thickness to have the left and right touch zones, so it makes sense to keep it that size, but maximum map size should have ONLY that banner, not the yellow warning banner as well.

So what about the yellow warning banner? Suggestions:

1. Loose it all together. It’s misleading. It doesn’t apply to following others. It forces me to turn my GPS on eating battery and data just to get it to go away.

2. How about this instead: Whenever the button for centering a map on yourself is touched on any of the open maps, automatically turn on GPS. (You can still have the option to turn it off/on in the upper right menu, but I can’t imagine a reason someone would want to center on themselves without activating GPS)

3. If not that, then simply cover the warning in your FAQ, Help, etc., that for best accuracy ON YOUR OWN POSITION, turn on GPS. Not needed for following others.

4. No enough of a warning? OK, then how about this: On initial startup of the app, how about popping up a dialog box with the warning and the option to “Never show this again”. Gets the point across and gets the warning off the screen for good.

5. Whatever else you can think of to get the point across, I’m all for it, but please, don’t leave it as it is now, OK?


Alright, rant over. You’ve got a really cool app suite here that I find myself using more and more, which is why I guess I’m getting so into it with you here on your forum. Thanks for being open to feedback, and being so quick to reply and take users’ suggestions (as I’ve noticed from the other posts — like reading the messages out loud). Looking forward to future updates of RTT2!

[admin]

Hi,
It seems that your mostly operate in full screen mode. So I have a different suggest:
What if the apps stores the selected screen mode? This way you need to go through the complicated menu only one time to select full screen. Afterwards the screen will always automatically open in full screen mode when you launch the app.

About the GPS hint at the top: There are many unexperienced users who not always understand what it means if they switch off GPS (and send bad rating because they think the app does not work ). So I think it might help some users to display this hint. If you don't need GPS you can uncheck the "Start GPS on service startup" option in the settings. Afterwards the tracker knows that obviously you don't plan to use GPS and the hint won't be displayed. This should solve your request. Nevertheless I agree there should be an easier option to hide this message. I will think about that.

[happyplanet]

Hi,
It seems that your mostly operate in full screen mode. So I have a different suggest:
What if the apps stores the selected screen mode? This way you need to go through the complicated menu only one time to select full screen. Afterwards the screen will always automatically open in full screen mode when you launch the app.

Yes! The stored selection screen mode would be perfect. I could always open in full screen. I've shut off the auto start GPS in Expert settings, so the annoying yellow banner is gone when launching. Just curious though, If I have it turned on and I launch the app first time, how come it isn't automatically turning GPS on? It's not like I'm turning it off and this happens. It's happening when I launch the app cold. Seems like the function may not be working on my Galaxy S4 running latest KitKat. Any thoughts?

[happyplanet]

Hi,
It seems that your mostly operate in full screen mode. So I have a different suggest:
What if the apps stores the selected screen mode? This way you need to go through the complicated menu only one time to select full screen. Afterwards the screen will always automatically open in full screen mode when you launch the app.

Yes! The stored selection screen mode would be perfect. I could always open in full screen. I've shut off the auto start GPS in Expert settings, so the annoying yellow banner is gone when launching. Just curious though, If I have it turned on and I launch the app first time, how come it isn't automatically turning GPS on? It's not like I'm turning it off and this happens. It's happening when I launch the app cold. Seems like the function may not be working on my Galaxy S4 running latest KitKat. Any thoughts?

Oh yes, one more thing. I ALSO have the "GPS on viewers only" setting checked. Is it possible that this setting overrides the "Switch on GPS automatically" preventing it to turn on when I launch the app? If so, is this what you want? I would think the priority should be reversed and the GPS should start automatically if that box is checked no matter what the viewers only option says. It seems more logical. Thanks.

[jknorst]

Hi Florian,

Do have the link for the revised logo so I can change my web site from http://www.greenalp.com/RealTimeTracker ... racker.png

to it?

Jack

[admin]

Hi,
Thanks for asking, this is indeed a missing point. I will create a new banner but I'm afraid it will take some time. Currently I'm quite occupied with some administrative tasks (e.g app promoting ).

[admin]

Oh yes, one more thing. I ALSO have the "GPS on viewers only" setting checked. Is it possible that this setting overrides the "Switch on GPS automatically" preventing it to turn on when I launch the app? If so, is this what you want? I would think the priority should be reversed and the GPS should start automatically if that box is checked no matter what the viewers only option says. It seems more logical. Thanks.

In my opinion the behavior is correct. The service starts up and disables GPS because there is no viewer (this is exactly what "GPS on viewers only" means. As soon there is a viewer GPS will be enabled. As soon as the user has left GPS will be disabled again. This option is for users who want to save battery and don't need GPS all the time.

[happyplanet]

Oh yes, one more thing. I ALSO have the "GPS on viewers only" setting checked. Is it possible that this setting overrides the "Switch on GPS automatically" preventing it to turn on when I launch the app? If so, is this what you want? I would think the priority should be reversed and the GPS should start automatically if that box is checked no matter what the viewers only option says. It seems more logical. Thanks.

In my opinion the behavior is correct. The service starts up and disables GPS because there is no viewer (this is exactly what "GPS on viewers only" means. As soon there is a viewer GPS will be enabled. As soon as the user has left GPS will be disabled again. This option is for users who want to save battery and don't need GPS all the time.

Thanks for your perspective, but that really doesn't make sense to me. If I have asked the app to launch with GPS on, doesn't it seem that I want it on when I launch the app, irregardless if there's a viewer or not? Turning it on just to turn it off if there's nobody watching me just doesn't make sense. Furthermore, if I touch the icon on the map to center the map on my position, wouldn't it be logical if GPS were off that it should automatically turn on to give me the best location data? At least it should turn on for one location transmission and then turn off again. I can see now where you're getting some poor reviews by app users thinking the accuracy is way off.

Here's the way I look at it. I am a viewer when I launch the app as well as anyone else viewing me. So, if I'm viewing myself in my own app, it should automatically turn GPS on. When I leave the app, I leave viewing myself, and its fine for the GPS to turn off, unless someone else is viewing me, of course.

Would it be possible to simply make me a viewer of my own app? That would solve everything, I think.