Anybody use Glympse?

[JaSauders]

To my surprise, Glympse isn't a popular topic on these forums based on my search results. I figured I'd start a thread to see if any users out there utilize Glympse.

For a while now I've been on the hunt for a location sharing app that works half decently. I've come across several. The most note-worthy one worth mentioning aside from Glympse would probably be Google Latitude. Google Latitude, however, has raged me in several ways. It's insanely inaccurate with the cell tower triangulation. I know this isn't Google's fault because densely populated cell tower areas would yield a more inaccurate location. However, I find it (extremely) ridiculous that there isn't a feature which allows the user to run Latitude in the background with GPS. This alone was a killer for me since I wanted to utilize Latitude in an accurate manner while still using my phone.

Besides that, I loved Latitude, and will probably use it in the future again if certain features ever get implemented. This brings me to Glympse. At first I wasn't too excited about the max 4 hour invitation. However, they have a +15min feature which makes adding time super, super easy. I also do like the security of knowing that once the timer is out - BAM - no more tracking. Other alternatives require manually disabling it. I also like how Glympse is on all of the major phone platforms, which makes it kind of nice that I can suggest an app that is relatively agnostic against phone platforms. That way my iPhone and WinMo buddies can benefit as well.

Overall, Glympse just seems to be an instant win, and they seem to have a ton of momentum moving them right along.

That said, has anybody else used Glympse? What scenarios do you use it for? I plan to use it on a road trip tomorrow so my family I'm coming to visit can see exactly where I'm at in the process.

 

[PVAISH]

I've been using Glympse for about a year. The trigger for me to start was when my wife and I had a baby and we needed to have an idea of where each other were in relation to our baby's naps, feedings, etc. It helped for her to know that I was still at the store and could pick up something additional without her having to call/talk to me and risk waking the baby up. Since then, I've also used it for dinner meetings where it's very likely I could be 15 minutes late or early. The dinner guest I was meeting could manage their time accordingly and I didn't have to try to call them while driving. I've had all around great experiences and highly recommend it. I just wish businesses like pizza companies or cable companies would use it for letting customers know how the delivery person is tracking.

 

[Deleted User]

I use Glympse so my family can watch me as I drive 6 hours from my house to theirs. My only gripe with Glympse is I have to remember in the middle of my trip to extend the time (4 hours is the longest you can set it). But other than that, it works great. I always use it with the GPS on and the phone plugged into the car charger.

 

[9to5cynic]

Hmmm... I had never thought of any positive uses of apps like these. I like these stories, I would have never thought about using it for dinner guests / checking to see if spouse is at the store. Good ideas! (Or maybe I just don't have a clue )

 

[Chuck O. Jones]

Like 9to5cynic I was enthused by the OP and the other 2 posters, so I downloaded Glympse, and tried to test it. I sent a Glympse message to an email address and one to a phone number to advise them they could follow me on Glympse.

Neither ever arrived...
Edit: the email came well over one and a half hours later (one hour and 20 minutes after I had set the Glympse session to expire...). The phone message never did come.

Exit Glympse!

 

[JaSauders]

The timer and I have a love hate relationship. I like knowing it expires so if I forget it somebody isn't snooping me for longer than I would like. However, I've always been very good to disable the sharing of my location anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

I just drove 10 hours and I used Glympse the whole way. The +15m option under the "history" menu is very quick to add time to the timer, so it's not that big of a deal. I mean, "tap tap tap" and the 4 hour timer is refreshed.

Now granted, would I prefer an option for a longer timer? Yes. But I understand their target demographic is for people who very well could forget to turn it off.

I wonder... does Glympse bring up a notification that the timer is expiring soon? Or does it just expire and exit completely? I wonder if it does... I can understand if it doesn't since the timer is user defined to set up, but it'd be nice so you could avoid sending out another link if your timer accidentally does expire when you wanted it to be a bit longer. I'll have to test it out...

It is nice knowing Glympse has such a strong following. It at least makes me feel good I can rely on it knowing it'll be here. There was another GPS app I used that I loved, but the dev had a notation in the support section clearly indicating it was a quick project that he started and it's quite possible that he wouldn't support it down the road. Ehh... Plus I think Glympse wants to get into businesses so businesses can pay for certain packages to utilize it with their employees. It's an app I would definitely pay for, but like I mentioned it sounds like their for-pay target is down the road with business packages and such and not so much individual users. We'll see what premium features they come out with for their business and corporate targets.

Chuck - Did the user get the email in their spam/junk folder? I sometimes run into users who this happens to. Not really Glympse's fault, but it is what it is.

 

[Deleted User]

The timer and I have a love hate relationship. I like knowing it expires so if I forget it somebody isn't snooping me for longer than I would like. However, I've always been very good to disable the sharing of my location anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

I just drove 10 hours and I used Glympse the whole way. The +15m option under the "history" menu is very quick to add time to the timer, so it's not that big of a deal. I mean, "tap tap tap" and the 4 hour timer is refreshed.

Now granted, would I prefer an option for a longer timer? Yes. But I understand their target demographic is for people who very well could forget to turn it off.

I wonder... does Glympse bring up a notification that the timer is expiring soon? Or does it just expire and exit completely? I wonder if it does... I can understand if it doesn't since the timer is user defined to set up, but it'd be nice so you could avoid sending out another link if your timer accidentally does expire when you wanted it to be a bit longer. I'll have to test it out...

Chuck - Did the user get the email in their spam/junk folder? I sometimes run into users who this happens to. Not really Glympse's fault, but it is what it is.

I haven't seen / heard any indication the timer is about to expire.

Another way to increase time (other than the tap tap tap) is to go to history and modify the Glympse and set it to 4 hours. Not sure which method is faster. I think they introduced the +15 minutes feature after I started using it. By that time I got in the habit of modifying the Glimpse from the history screen. I will try the "tap tap tap" method next time ;-)

 

[JaSauders]

Yea the 15 min feature is relatively new. I forget how new but I remember reading the release about it.

 

[Chuck O. Jones]

Chuck - Did the user get the email in their spam/junk folder? I sometimes run into users who this happens to. Not really Glympse's fault, but it is what it is.

You're quite right to check, Ja, but when it finally did arrive, the email arrived properly, in the INbox.

However, in another trial, today, I found that Glympse won't send that email if you're on WiFi. At least that happened to me. Had to switch to 3G* to get it off to the recipient, who was waiting for me.
BTW, this time Glympse worked as advertised: 'the other side' got a good dynamic map in their browser (sadly not zoomable) and it was accurate to the minute.

So on second thoughts I'll keep Glympse for the time being...


*If that quirk – a bug to me – stays, I think it is because the dev is planning on eeking some revenue out of the telcos whose mobile phone traffic will obviously increase considerably from widespread use of this app.

And another thought: adding some sort of programmable presets/scripts/macros so that when you hit the favorite 'Home' it will automatically fire off that SMS and/or email to the 'better half' while mounting your route home and the up-to-the-second traffic conditions into your WAZE app...

It's like voluntary electronic anklet surveillance, really...

Next time I'll give it a tougher challenge: I think I'll try to throw it off with the 'MyFakeLocation' app! Let's see what happens then!

 

[Hrethgir]

I use Glympse a lot, and I love it, and so do the people who watch me on it. In mid August, I took a Saddle Sore 1000 ride on my motorcycle, the goal of which is to ride 1000 miles in less than 24 hours, and I had Glympse running on my Droid X the whole time. I was stopping for gas every 2 hours, so I would just keep adding time each gas stop, and then people could see where I was (as long as I had a cell signal!) and know that I was moving along on route and not crashed somewhere, and my wife and parents really liked that peace of mind.

 

[Chuck O. Jones]

I use Glympse a lot, and I love it, and so do the people who watch me on it. In mid August, I took a Saddle Sore 1000 ride on my motorcycle, the goal of which is to ride 1000 miles in less than 24 hours, and I had Glympse running on my Droid X the whole time. I was stopping for gas every 2 hours, so I would just keep adding time each gas stop, and then people could see where I was (as long as I had a cell signal!) and know that I was moving along on route and not crashed somewhere, and my wife and parents really liked that peace of mind.

Yeah, and its temporary and 'narrowcast' nature is ideal for adulterers of course too.

 

[JaSauders]

I wonder how much the bandwidth would increase from use of this app. Anybody have any idea?

Also... It sounds like this company is gearing up for some premium features to charge with a premium app... Sounds like its to be for companies or something like that. Interesting... I wonder what they will be....


I also noticed that life 360 might be usable like this in a slower interval. That app is geared to be a little different though since its meant for family tracking in intervals instead of up to the minute location updates. Still interesting though.

 

[Chuck O. Jones]

I wonder how much the bandwidth would increase from use of this app. Anybody have any idea?

FWIW: I used Glympse for about two hours this week, but my 3G Watchdog doesn't show any unexpected peak usage.