Best apps for keeping tabs on traveling companions

Family Tracker lets you keep up on everybody’s whereabouts “without a flurry of calls.” Once members of your group accept an invitation to your network, the app uses the GPS in their smartphones to track their locations. ($6 for iOS, $5 for Android)

GPS Tracking Pro is a free app that does the same kind of tracking, but only in a limited area. (Android only)

Find My Friends sends out a request to your contacts’ phones each time you want to know where they are. If they accept, you’ll see them on a map. (Free, iOS only)

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Find My Kids—Footprints can update a GPS map of your friends or family every time any of them changes location. It will also notify you if one of them enters a spot—like the hotel pool—where you don’t want them wandering unattended. ($2 and up; iOS only)

Source: The New York Times