When you share your location from Find My on an iPhone, Apple gives you three choices: for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. One hour is too short for a day at a theme park. Indefinitely is the one most families tap, and then nobody remembers to turn it off. A 12-year-old's first trip to the city with a friend's family turns into a dot their parents can see for the next five years.
When you're tracking your kids' location on a special day, you usually want answers to three questions.
- Did they get there?
- Are they on their way back?
- How far are they from home?
The same goes for a grandmother taking the train to a graduation, or a dad who doesn't drive any more going to a cousin's wedding with your brother. You don't need to watch the map all day to answer those, and the person you're checking on usually doesn't want you to.
A real-time GPS tracker for one day
In OnTime, the day is a Radar. You create it, set an end time, and the people involved join. That's all a day out needs. You can add stops if there are places you want on the map, but you don't have to.
While the Radar is running, your kid's iPhone works as a real-time GPS tracker. Their dot on the map updates every few seconds and leaves a trail behind it. When the Radar ends, it goes back to being their phone.
Take the 12-year-old going to an amusement park with a friend. Create the Radar in the morning and set the end time an hour or so after they're due back, so a late train doesn't cut the sharing off early. Ask the friend's parent to join too. They're the adult driving, and their dot tells you as much about where the car is as your kid's does.
Around the time they should arrive, open the map once and see both dots at the park. That's the first answer, and nobody had to send a text. Then close the app. The map will still be there at 4pm if you want to see whether they've left yet, and the trail behind each dot shows which way they're heading. When the dots are a few streets from home, you'll know when to walk out to the car.
Other days out work the same way:
- School trip: check once on the way there and once on the way back, so you're at the gates when the coach pulls in.
- Away football tournament: add the coach who's driving, and see the car without texting someone at the wheel.
- First concert: set the end time to midnight and see whether they've left the venue yet.
- Beach day with a friend's family: one look at lunchtime is usually enough.
- First train trip into town: add the home station as a stop, and the Live Activity shows how far they are from it.
The grandmother on the train is a case where a stop helps. Her grandson is meeting her at the arrival station, so he adds it to the Radar. On her Lock Screen, a Live Activity shows how far she is from it, which is reassuring if she's not sure where to get off. He can leave for the platform when her dot is one station out, instead of waiting by the barriers for forty minutes because the timetable said 10:52. When she gets there, she taps "I'm here", and everyone on the Radar sees she's arrived.
A family member who has trouble finding their way around might need more than one. A wedding might have the church, the reception venue and the hotel. When the ceremony ends and everyone moves on, the people helping him can see whether he's in someone's car or still at the church.
They can see you too
A Radar works in both directions. Everyone who joins can see everyone else.
That changes how it feels for the person being checked on. The teenager at the theme park can see that you're still at home and haven't driven over. At the end of the day, they can see you're already parked at the pickup point, two streets from the main gate. The grandmother can see her grandson's dot walking toward the platform, so she knows someone is coming for her before she steps off the train.
It also means nobody is being tracked without knowing it. Everyone on the Radar joined it themselves and can see that their location is shared. We wrote more about where checking on someone turns into watching every move. A Radar that covers one day, with a clear end, sits on the safe side of that line.
When Apple's own tools are enough
If the whole day is one journey, such as your teen getting the bus home from a friend's house, you might not need OnTime at all. Apple's Check In in Messages sends you a notification when their iPhone reaches the destination. If they stop making progress, it asks them whether they're OK, and tells you if they don't reply within 15 minutes. Both of you need iOS 17 or later. OnTime doesn't send that kind of automatic alert, and it doesn't have SOS or fall detection.
OnTime is more useful when a day has several people in it: the friend's parent who's driving, the grandson at the station, the cousin bringing your dad home from the reception. Check In is between two people and one destination. The Radar keeps all of them on one map for the whole day.
Whatever you use, it only knows where the phone is. If your mum leaves hers on the table at the reception, the map shows the table. Charge it the night before and make sure it's in a pocket or a bag with a strap. A child who's too young for a phone needs a different kind of real-time GPS tracker, usually a kids' watch or a small device clipped to their bag. For someone with dementia who may wander off on their own, talk to their doctor or a local support service about devices built for that.
When the end time comes, the Radar ends and everyone stops sharing. Nothing is left running indefinitely, and you don't have to remember to turn it off.