Random notification about parked car location

[indubioush]

I'm am baffled by my phone. Last night I drove home, and a couple minutes after getting inside my apartment I received a notification on my phone about my car's location. The icon looked like a map marker with a P on it. I selected the notification, and then a car icon appeared in my notification bar. After selecting the car icon notification, it gave me a choice of how to see my parked car's location: Maps or web browser, and maybe something else. I selected Maps, and it showed me the location of my car, which was right outside my window where I parked.

So, this may not seem that weird to you, but I don't have any car locator app on my phone. I don't have Google Now. The version of Google Search that I have is really old. I have looked through my list of apps to figure out where this could be coming from, but I come up with nothing. I have an LG motion, and my carrier is Metro PCS. Does anyone know what app may be causing my phone to do this? This parked car notification has happened twice, I think both times after long drives home at night. It just seems so weird since it seemed to come out of the blue. Please help. Thanks.

 

[steiny180]

How does your phone know where your car is???...

I think this'll give you a clue...

 

[oleb84]

I'll put money on it being Google Now. It's not something you have to download, it comes pre-installed in the phones software updates.

It knows when you are driving based on data ddata when you stop moving it assumes you have parked. Not always an exact science though as I've got parking notifications when I've been stuck in traffic before!

 

[indubioush]

Thanks. If I have Google Now on my phone though, wouldn't it show in my list of apps in the Settings? Also, I've seen pictures of Google Now's parked car "card," and I don't get anything that looks like that on my phone. Could I get a weird partial install of Google Now?

 

[indubioush]

Okay, so I looked at the Google App info in Google Play, and there is a warning that this version is not compatible with my phone, so maybe it WAS some sort of partial install or non-functional install of Google Now. What do you think? Thanks for your help!

 

[oleb84]

Google Now isn't an "app" do it won't appear on your app list.

Long press the main menu button and it should open Google Now if you have it.

 

[mikedt]

How would Google Now even know you've been driving and parking your own car, and not using the subway, bus or a taxi? Unless you've told it somehow?

I found Google Now couldn't even determine what city and country I was in, Hong Kong or London, never mind what mode of transport I was using, so I removed it, useless in mainland PRC anyway. I was in London, United Kingdom during the summer, and it kept on about being 10 minutes from Nathan Road, TST, Hong Kong.

 

[electricpete]

If it happens again, long press the notification and select "app info"

 

[indubioush]

I tried to long press the main menu button. No Google Now. It showed me all the other apps i recently used though. Also, i tried to long press some of the notifications in the notification bar, and it doesn't give me to option to get more info. It just does nothing. Maybe if it happpens again I will go look at what apps are currently running. Still a mystery...

 

[leo0901]

long press dont work?!!

 

[indubioush]

Long press of the home button gives me recent application history.

 

[bioband]

What app? Recommend to me! I find the app is useful, when I failed to find my car or when I need to find kids.

 

[Bren S.]

Almost sounds like some kind of a tracking app. Weird.

 

[indubioush]

Okay, this weird notification happened again last night, and the strange thing is that I wasn't even driving at all last night. This time I was able to check my task manager to see what apps were running. Well I didn't see anything unusual there. I was able to capture some screen shots. When the notification first comes, it looks like this:

When I click on the car locator, there is a temporary message on my screen that says to tap the car icon when I am ready to locate my car. If I do tap it, the notification changes to this:

 

[indubioush]

Sorry, this is what it looks like:

If I tap on the car notification, it gives me the option of using maps, chrome, or metropcs web browser to locate my car. Whichever I choose, it will show me the location of my car which is my home address of course, and it tries to show me walking directions to get to my car. Anybody out there know what this is? It's a little freaky. Oh, and sorry if my pictures look dim. I use the twilight app.

 

[Unforgiven]

Is it a Google Now card?

 

[indubioush]

It is not a card. All I get is the pictures you see above or google maps showing how to get back to my car. Maybe I am the only person in the world whose phone is doing this bizarre thing.

 

[ChicTek]

I got this tonight! It's 1:40 am, I'm home in bed. Lol I assumed it was Google now?

 

[indubioush]

Okay get this. I think it might be the coupons app. As you can see from my screenshots above, the coupons app gave me a notification at the exact same time. Mysterious... So I was looking at the notifications options on the coupons app last night, and to my surprise, I saw that "car locator" was an option. Look at the screenshot below:

However, I tried to find information about this car locator option online, and I didn't find anything.

ChicTek, you said you received the same notification. Do you have the coupons app installed on your phone?

By the way, I also emailed the coupons app about this to see if they would confirm that their app is doing this. I haven't heard anything back yet. If I do, I will relay the information to this board.

 

[indubioush]

This mystery has been solved! It is The Coupons App! I received an email back, and it explained how the car locator works:

The car locator only appears when a driving notification also appears - which is supposed to occur only when you have driven then appear to have stopped within a couple blocks of a store with a coupon currently inside the app. If you tap it, it will temporarily remember where you are at that moment. Then when done shopping, simply tap that icon in your notification bar and it will map you back to your initial location - so if you had tapped it first when exiting car, then again when done shopping it would show you the way back.

As for me, I'll probably be disabling this feature. I really like the coupons app, but I don't need it to be a car locator.

 

[Vabramson]

I had just had this happen to me so I did a search and found your original post, as I'm reading the comments I came across this response. I also have the coupon app so I'm assuming it's what it was but I don't see how they know my car or . Where it is especially if my phone is with me and my car is somewhere else, HOW CAN THEY TRACK MY CAR BY ITSELF? THIS IS CRAZY AS WELL SCARY !

Okay get this. I think it might be the coupons app. As you can see from my screenshots above, the coupons app gave me a notification at the exact same time. Mysterious... So I was looking at the notifications options on the coupons app last night, and to my surprise, I saw that "car locator" was an option. Look at the screenshot below:
View attachment 78187
However, I tried to find information about this car locator option online, and I didn't find anything.

ChicTek, you said you received the same notification. Do you have the coupons app installed on your phone?

By the way, I also emailed the coupons app about this to see if they would confirm that their app is doing this. I haven't heard anything back yet. If I do, I will relay the information to this board.

 

[funkylogik]

How would Google Now even know you've been driving and parking your own car, and not using the subway, bus or a taxi? Unless you've told it somehow?

I found Google Now couldn't even determine what city and country I was in, Hong Kong or London, never mind what mode of transport I was using, so I removed it, useless in mainland PRC anyway. I was in London, United Kingdom during the summer, and it kept on about being 10 minutes from Nathan Road, TST, Hong Kong.

Sorry just found this old thread and don't know if this was answered but in Now's settings you set your usual form of transport. That's how it knows if you were driving or not.
I almost wish I was a driver just for this feature