Newsletter
Google updated its Trusted Contacts Android app with support for Google Maps and a number of other features earlier this week. The Mountain View, California-based Internet giant started rolling out the latest build of Trusted Contacts on Monday and the new software version should soon be available for download from the Google Play Store in all parts of the world. The newly introduced support for Google Maps allows you to share your location with one or more of your Trusted Contacts on a permanent basis. This functionality goes both ways, as you’ll be able to see the location of your contacts just like they’ll be able to locate you. The feature seemingly builds on limited Google Maps integration that the app already boasted since its late 2016 launch and the functionality now works in a smoother manner. The same framework also allows you to instantly share your location with all contacts or request access to locations of individual contacts.
Another notable addition introduced with the Trusted Contacts build 1.5 is the presence of custom timeouts that you can now modify to define how long should Google’s service wait before providing your contacts with your whereabouts. Up until now, the app would automatically send your coordinates if you didn’t respond to a location request in five minutes, though you’re now presented with four more options of modifying that behavior; you can set the app to send your coordinates after 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and an hour of inactivity, in addition to completely eliminating the time limit for location requests and disclosing your whereabouts as soon as one of your verified contacts asks for them. The latter option essentially turns Trusted Contacts into a real-time location pinging app and consequently makes it much more useful for certain demographics like parents of young children. The setting is still of the system-wide variety, though Alphabet’s subsidiary may allow users to set specific timeouts for individual contacts in the future.
The latest version of Trusted Contacts can be downloaded by following the Google Play Store banner beneath this writing. Just like before, the service is still compatible with all smartphones running Android Jelly Bean and later versions of the mobile operating system.
