How to request location of my phone via SMS?

[eveshih]

Hi

I am new to the app. Please help.
I installed the app on my android phone, and this phone is supposed to be with my son, so I can track him where ever he is.
If I needed to know where he is, or track his location, I can send SMS to that phone? As in, I just go to SMS, and send to the phone number with text message of "rttstartpwd=" ?

Please advice.

[admin]

Hi,
Your are right but the text phrase "rttstartpwd=" is not enough, you have to use the SMS password configured on your son's phone. Example: if the password is "trackme" the correct phrase will be "rttstartpwd=trackme".

When your son's phone receives the SMS it will launch the tracker and you can go to the web portal to see the location. Please note that it only works if data connection is enabled on your son's phone.

Btw, you can start the tracker from web portal even without sending SMS. Just use the remote command functionality.

[colinbrooks]

Please could you explain in more detail how to start and stop the tracker from the web portal

[admin]

Hi,
First login with your son's account to the web portal. On the left side of the map you will find the menu entry "Remote Commands". Click it to enter the remote command section. Now you will see a selection box at the bottom where you can choose the command you would like to send. If you send the command "Start service" your son's tracker should start automatically (if data connection is enabled on your son's phone).

[colinbrooks]

Unfortunately I have encountered some problems. Sorry if I'm being stupid but
1. I cannot see a command "Start service"
2. At the top of the Command section there is a message saying "Please note: remote commands will only work if Real Time GPS Tracker is already running", which would seem to indicate that you cannot start son's tracker automatically
3. When I attempt to send a command there is a message appears saying I need to download the latest version of App - but in fact the version I have was only downloaded 3 weeks ago so presumably is the latest.

[dungbeetle]

post deleted

[admin]

1.) Yes, the option is "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging" (maybe I will rename it)
2.) Most of the commands only work if the service is already running. But the good thing this does not count for "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging". This command can really start your service - it just needs a working data connection. So if the service is not running you can start it with this remote command. As soon as it is running you can send the other commands too.
3.) Are you using the correct account? Please login with your son's account and ensure that your son has installed the most recent version and that the new version has been started at least one time. It does not matter which version is installed on your phone - it's your son's phone that must be up to date.

[colinbrooks]

I have been doing some further experimenting with Remote control, and realized that some of the problems I mentioned in my previous post were because I was logged into my friend's portal site. I have now done some more exploring and have a whole new set of queries!

1. Maybe I have misunderstood this, but the Refresh button for Command history doesnt seem to work. It seems that to remove old commands you have to click on each individual X button.
2. If you logon to your own [owner's] portal website you can start the App on your own phone using the "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging" command, but when you try to stop the service by sending a Stop command you get a message that "Service cannot be stopped because there is no SMS keyboard configured". If you then use the "Set SMS keyboard" command, the Stop Service command works OK, but why is this necessary? Why not have a Stop command that works via Google Cloud Messaging? More importantly, what implications will setting an SMS keyboard password have for the general functionality of my phone?
3. The "Track once" command is really useful but it is a pity that the default options do not include "Force stop GPS". As a consequence you could leave the GPS running on the targeted phone, with disastrous consequences, especially if it were a friend's phone [they might not want to be your friend anymore]! Can this be altered?
4. Something which is really odd is that the "Remote control" section is not usable on the portal website of friends who do not have a phone with the App installed. In addition, even if they had the App, the there seems to be no "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging" command [although a Track once command is available]! These two problems are very frustrating because I imagine many people like myself would like friends to be able to track them. Can this capability please be included? Otherwise the only option is for owners to allow friends access to the owner's portal, which is rather unsatisfactory.

Sorry for all the questions, I hope you will be able to answer them.

[admin]

1. Yes you have to click the delete button. "Refresh" means the page is just reloaded.

2. The SMS keyword is required to prevent users from loosing control. Maybe the "Start Service" remote command does not work on every phone. But users still can restart the service by sending a SMS if they have configured a SMS password. Please note that you can check the "force"-checkbox to stop the service without having a SMS keyword. More information about SMS is available here: http://www.greenalp.com/realtimetracker ... page=intro

3. If you choose the default options gps will stop if it was stopped before. The Trackonce command leaves the GPS in the same state as it was before the command was processed.

4.

"Remote control" section is not usable on the portal website of friends who do not have a phone with the App installed

What do you mean? Of course you cannot send a remote command to friends if they have not installed the tracker. "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging" is always available (except if the tracker version on the target phone is older than a year).

[colinbrooks]

With regard to point 3, I hadnt realized that the "Track once" command only works if the App is actually running on the phone, which would be the case either if the user of the phone was currently using the App, or because you had started it running remotely by sending the command "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging". Would it be possible for Admin to change the functionality of the "Track once" command so that it if the App is not running on the targeted phone it will start it, start the GPS, perform the "Track once" function, then stop GPS and the App? An alternative would be to have another command with a different name that does this?

With regard to point 4, let me try to explain the problem again. What I meant was that I would like friend X to be able to find out where I am at any time. I have the App on my phone, and it works perfectly, but my friend does not have the App. However, she has her own login and password for the portal and I have made her one of my RTT friends. But when she logs on and goes to the Remote control section she can see the same commands that I can see when I am logged onto the portal EXCEPT unlike me she does not have a "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging" command, and the other commands dont work because she herself doesnt have the App on her own phone.

As mentioned in my earlier post, it seemed that the only option was for me to give her my own personal login details so that she could log in to my portal site and control the App on my phone remotely.

Actually, I have now discovered that there are at least two other ways for her to track me.

1. I can give her my "Guest Link" URL, which I found by logging on to the Portal, going to Settings, Friends and Permissions, then at the top of the "Permissions settings" box clicking on "guest link" which opens a new window from which I can copy the "Guest Link" URL. The disadvantage with this is that she can only find out the last position that RTT transmitted when it was last running on my phone.

2. In the same "Permission settings" box, if I change the option in the "Remote commands" section from the default "Nobody but me" to "Accepted friends only" then when my she logs on to her own portal site and clicks on "Remote control", at the top right of the Remote control page is a little box that allows her to switch the user to me, which in essence brings her to my portal page where all the remote commands including "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging" and "Track once" are available and usable.

This latter option allows her to switch on the RTT App on my phone using the "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging" command, then to obtain my position using the "Track once" command.

However, there are a number of things she needs to be aware of:

A. When she uses the "Track once" command with the default options, it will only stop GPS if GPS was not running on the App prior to sending the command. In actual fact, when the App is started, either by the user of the phone, or by sending the "Start service via Google Cloud Messaging" remote command, GPS automatically switches on. So if she then uses the "Track once" command, GPS will be left running, unless she remembers to check the "Force stop GPS" option, or to send a "Stop GPS" command thereafter.

B. However, this raises a dilemma, because as a remote user she does not know whether the App was switched on or off on my phone when she starts tracking me. If I had been using the App to track myself, I would not be very happy if, unknown to me, the GPS got switched off!

C. A peculiarity that I encountered in exploring all this is that if my friend initiates the process of tracking me as described in 2 above, when she sends commands to my phone remotely from the Portal the commands appear in the Command section to keep running indefinitely, and never seem to reach a "Done" status, even though [as can be discovered by sending another command] they have in fact been exectuted. By contrast, when I log on to the Portal myself and send the same commands, they run for just a minute or so, and then are Done and the Result is displayed.

I would be interested in Admin's view on these various matters, and whether something can be done that would alow a friend to be able to determine, when they are logged in as described in 2, whether the App/GPS is already running on the owner's phone.

Once again many thanks for your patience and help