Before phones could share a dot on a map, you shared your location by typing it. Dodgeball was started in 2000 by two New York University students, Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert. You texted the name of the bar you were in to the service. It then texted your friends, and friends of friends, who were nearby. It grew to 22 US cities, and Google bought it in 2005.
Every location sharing app since then has had to answer two questions that Dodgeball raised. Does your location update by itself, or only when you say so? And how long can people see it? The big apps have changed their minds on the second question more than once.
From Dodgeball to Find My, by date
| Date | What happened | How long friends could see you |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Dodgeball starts. You check in by text message. | Only the place you texted in |
| 2005 | Google buys Dodgeball. | |
| Feb 5, 2009 | Google launches Latitude, a friends map in Google Maps. Dodgeball closes that month. | Until you turned it off |
| March 2009 | Crowley launches Foursquare, a check-in app built on the Dodgeball idea. | Only the place you checked in |
| Oct 12, 2011 | Apple releases Find My Friends, a few hours before iOS 5. | Until you turned it off, or an end time you picked |
| Aug 9, 2013 | Google closes Latitude. | |
| Mar 22, 2017 | Google Maps brings location sharing back, with trip sharing. | A length you choose, or until you arrive |
| Jun 21, 2017 | Snapchat launches Snap Map. Snap has also bought Zenly, a Paris friends map app. | Until you turned on Ghost Mode |
| Oct 17, 2017 | WhatsApp launches Live Location, end-to-end encrypted. | A timer you set before sending |
| Sep 19, 2019 | Apple merges Find My Friends and Find My iPhone into one Find My app. | One hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely |
| Feb 3, 2023 | Snap shuts Zenly down. |
Checking in
Dodgeball and Foursquare knew where you were only when you told them. A check-in said "I am at this bar, come along." It said nothing about where you were an hour later.
Latitude had no end date
Latitude was the first big service that updated by itself. You could watch friends move around a city with nobody typing anything. People had to opt in, and Google gave them some control. They could share an exact location or only the city, turn sharing off, or type in a location by hand. What Latitude did not have was an end. Anyone on your list could see you for as long as you left sharing on.
That model suits families who want to know when someone gets home from school or work. Life360 built its business on it, and we compare the two approaches in OnTime vs. Life360. Among friends it is more awkward. Few people want everyone from a weekend trip to see where they are on a Tuesday. Switching it off later can also look like a message to the others.
Apple had custom end times in 2011, then cut them
The most forward-looking feature in this history came early. When Apple announced Find My Friends in October 2011, its press release said you could share your location with a group of friends "for a couple of hours for a dinner or a couple of days on a camping trip." When the time was up, the sharing ended.
Apple called these Temporary Events. You could pick any date and time for the sharing to end. A dinner could end at 11 pm, and a camping trip could end on Sunday afternoon.
By iOS 9 that choice had shrunk to three options: share for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. In August 2016, Dan Moren at Six Colors wrote a wish list asking Apple to bring Temporary Events back. Find My still offers the same three options today. A trip that lasts three hours has to be shared for one hour three times, or left on indefinitely and turned off by hand.
Other apps moved the opposite way. When Google Maps brought location sharing back in 2017, the first thing it asked was how long to share. Its "share trip" option stopped by itself when you arrived. WhatsApp's Live Location asked for a timer before you could send it. You could stop early, or let the timer run out.
Most location sharing among friends covers one evening, one drive or one day out. Only the people doing it with you need to see you. A timer means nobody has to remember to switch it off afterwards.
Zenly was popular and still closed
Zenly was built for friends to see each other all the time. It had about 35 million monthly users in early 2022. Snap closed it anyway on February 3, 2023. Snap said Zenly had no clear path to meaningful revenue, and that it would concentrate on a single map, the Snap Map inside Snapchat.
What we built on it
We built OnTime on the end-time model. You start a Radar, set an end time, and people join. Everyone in the Radar sees each other on one map, and sharing stops for everyone at the end time. It is close to what Temporary Events did in 2011. OnTime cannot show you anyone who is not in the Radar, and it does not keep anyone visible after the Radar ends.