Latitude... what gives?

[Fadelight]

Anyone else having issues with Latitude right now? My father and I both have Droids, and it doesn't seem to work as it is being billed. "Track your friends in real time." Sure... if they mean real time for 2 seconds every 20 minutes (at best), and with an accuracy of about 3900 meters.

My phone shows my location to me flawlessly, but when my father is sitting right next to me with his phone and looking, it shows me about 2 miles down the road. If I look from my PC, it shows me in the same place his phone does. It doesn't run in the background like they claim it will, either. If I am not looking at my maps, it isn't updating. this includes when my screen shuts off.

The only way I can see to get around it inaccurately reporting where I am when I am home is to manually change my location... to anywhere, it doesn't matter... and then turn automatic updating again. At that point, it is correct. It still won't actually update in real time, though.

Is it just me that is having these issues, or is this just the way it works? If it is just the way it works... how can google claim it is real time?


I read about a similar issue (via google search) as far as the updating. Google addressed it by stating they were working on the problem... but the date for that was Feb 24, 2009. They still haven't fixed it?

Link to that post

Hey everyone,
Thank you for all your detailed reports. There is in fact a bug in the background location updates feature that we're currently working on for an upcoming version that includes other several other bug fixes. The intended behavior is exactly what many of you have asked for -- Maps is closed but a small location update process runs in the background that updates based on if you are moving and how fast. I'll describe the known issue below as many of you have noted. Please let me know if you experience any differences:

- Background sharing is not currently working on Windows Mobile phones when closing Maps for mobile and choosing 'Yes' to allow background sharing. This is a known issue and is being fixed for the next release.

- If you leave Maps for mobile open in the background by minimizing it or opening another app, location updates will continue as long as your phone is awake.

Thank you again for your help and patience while we work on this!

Best,
Chris

 

[sailsunfurled]

I was playing around with this yesterday but did not have anyone that has the Droid to check everything out with. Let us know how it goes.

 

[barry99705]

I've not played with it since I got my Droid, but on my Tilt it worked mostly as advertised. It lagged google maps so it would only update about once a minute or two, even on the phone. I could turn off latitude, then the little icon would pretty much track exactly where I was, latitude on, and it would jump positions.

 

[tsaunders]

I had this issue with a buddy of mine, it said he was somewhere else, even though on the map he was in the right location.

 

[Fadelight]

GPS Tracker does what I want... half of what I want, anyway. It allows me to track another phone from mine, but requires me to go on their site to view it. They need to make an app that either acts as latitude, or integrates into google maps to display the position of other phones from an app rather than the browser.

If that is unreadable, I am sorry. it is late and I'm getting tired. lol.

 

[Tackleberry]

Been wondering the same, noticed it last week. People are showing up in aproximate area. I can take my wife's tour and my droid go outside and get exact location showing up on the map but when I look at eachothers location thru latitude they are way off. Her phone is across town.
I have searched and searched on the google forums and cant come up with an answer as to why??

 

[Fadelight]

Been wondering the same, noticed it last week. People are showing up in aproximate area. I can take my wife's tour and my droid go outside and get exact location showing up on the map but when I look at eachothers location thru latitude they are way off. Her phone is across town.
I have searched and searched on the google forums and cant come up with an answer as to why??

The reason why is because unless your GPS is active (ie: Google maps is open and in the foreground), then latitude [supposedly] will be updating via cell towers rather than holding GPS open. That is why the circle around the dot gets so much bigger as well.. that circle indicates the margin of error.


On a side note: something rather unexpected happened tonight while testing GPS Tracker... Latitude actually works! GPS tracker runs in the background and holds your GPS open, and consequentially, Latitude updates frequently via GPS while it is open.

So in essence, I don't need a third party app to substitute Latitude anymore... although it still sucks that I do need a 3rd party app to hold the GPS open. GPS Tracker acts as, sort of, a plugin for latitude.

In any event, this will work ok until Google gets their heads on straight and fixes Latitude so it works as it is supposed to.

 

[ggp]

On a side note: something rather unexpected happened tonight while testing GPS Tracker... Latitude actually works! GPS tracker runs in the background and holds your GPS open, and consequentially, Latitude updates frequently via GPS while it is open.

I saw a few GPS trackers... anyone in particular? So far I'm downloading the one from "InstaMapper"

Thanks

eta... so I've got InstaMapper on and running, and latitude was showing my correct location... now latitude popped off by 500 feet and won't go back even if I attempt refreshing from my phone. In the meantime InstaMapper's website shows my exact location, probably within 3 feet.

 

[Fadelight]

I saw a few GPS trackers... anyone in particular? So far I'm downloading the one from "InstaMapper"

Thanks

eta... so I've got InstaMapper on and running, and latitude was showing my correct location... now latitude popped off by 500 feet and won't go back even if I attempt refreshing from my phone. In the meantime InstaMapper's website shows my exact location, probably within 3 feet.

Yeah the app is called "GPS Tracker" in the market, and it is the one made by instamapper.

I didn't run into the problems with Latitude that you did. That does really suck.

It would be nice if latitude worked like gps tracker, though. Except, you know... with the app integrated into google maps like it is now.