Find My Friends

old_coyote

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Messages
230
Hey Roks,

Question for you all... going hunting out of state in a new area with new friends. I am looking for a non-rhino solution ($$$) to utilize a 'Find My Friends' feature. We all have iphones with OnX, and will have paper map and I will have a etrex gps as a back-up.

We will be hunting rugged terrain so radios won't be a good solution. Trying to reduce the # of devises, batteries, etc that I need to carry.

Any thoughts or solutions?

Thanks!

Old_Coyote
 

muddydogs

WKR
Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
1,099
Location
Utah
If radio's won't cut it then the only option would be satellite as in satellite phones or InReach and if the Rhino is to much cash then the satellite option would be way out of the picture.
 
OP
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old_coyote

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Messages
230
Yes, I suppose I am looking for an iPhone (app) solution. I figure if my iPhone gps works offline can find my friends?
 

FlyGuy

WKR
Joined
Aug 13, 2016
Messages
2,087
Location
The Woodlands, TX
The only thing that I know of is the InReach + earthmate app. I don't "think" you can follow their movements in the field. You can do this from home (or anywhere your phone has service) if they have turned on the tracking feature and have invited you. I've never tried this in the field, but this year my two hunting partners all have one so I'll find out then, but my unit will most likely stay inactive until I reactivate the service plan in September.

I do know for certain that when someone sends you an InReach to InReach message it will show you the location that message was sent from on your map. For that to work they have to have that location feature enabled, some people don't want that turned on to keep their honey holes a secret.

Doesn't help with your goal of less stuff and fewer batteries though. Although these units go days and days between charges. If you find an app that can track locations of your buddies off of just your phone's GPS, without a mobile network, then please share what you find.

Good luck this Fall!

Sent from my SM-G610F using Tapatalk
 
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old_coyote

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 10, 2015
Messages
230
Thanks flyguy; a heard gps is “one way” so perhaps that is what I am up against.
 

muddydogs

WKR
Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
1,099
Location
Utah
I haven't checked into it a whole lot but it appears that one can sign up for an InReach professional account which lets you add multiple units to the same account which could turn into a billing nightmare trying to collect from all your buddies to pay the bill. On the web site it talks about being able to track your assets and the way it makes it sound its computer based but it might be worth a call to Garmin to see if one could also track the inreach units via the Earthmate app.

We use InReach units in my small hunting party and have no issues with check in times if we know we need to communicate throughout the day and if someone gets something then a quick InReach message to the others lets them know and shows the location of the sent message on the Earthmate app. Most the time we don't want to talk with each other so the InReach is just carried for an emergency device.
 
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