Life 360 allows you to keep tabs on your family, now on Windows Phone

By Sam Sabri
published

Life360 is very popular on Android and iOS, now Windows Phone families can get in on the fun. This app actually came out a few weeks ago but flew under our radar. Nonetheless, we need to get the word out for all those families who could find value in an app brings families closer together. Read on to learn more about Life360 and download the Windows Phone app.

Life360 (www.life360.com) isn't just an app; it's a platform that helps keep the family connected. You could use phone calls and text messages, but Life360 goes beyond that to make sure you know what's going on with your family at all times.

Here's what you get with Life360 on Windows Phone:

  • Find family & friend locations on a private Map
  • Know when your family is safe or needs help
  • Chat one-on-one or with everyone within each of your Circles
  • Get alerted when a Circle member reaches a destination
  • Track a stolen or lost phone

Life360

There are few things the app does that will appeal to all the moms and dads out there. Checking in on your kids by viewing their locations on a private map would probably prove invaluable to many parents. You don't need to call or text the kid, just check up on them. It's a good way to make sure they make it to soccer practice safely.

Any Windows Phone Central families out there up for trying out Life360? Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

Thanks for the tip F A!

QR: Life360

Sam Sabri
Sam Sabri
157 Comments
  • Yes. Official, apps, apps, keep closing the gap like a sheet rock plaster worker sealing a wall. Sealing all the cracks. MSFT ecosystem is on fire. Look out Google and Apple MSFT is dead on track on your heels, Great thanks Sam.
  • WP is likely to overtake iOS in 2015-16!
  • This... I like it.
  • Especially if they get rid of the headphone jack and make everyone buy over-priced headphones with shitty Beats tech.
  • They won't.
  • ouch! overpriced with big bad ass bass to the human(cough cough) ears.
  • Off topic: isn't it we're expecting XBOX MUSIC update today?
  • yep! cant wait.. hope for livetiles and lock pic this time around
  • Not going to happen, but a 10-15% marketshare in the US is doable and should be enough to force attention from developers.
  • Well said!
  • This..... Well said. Lol.
  • What a nightmare!!! You shouldn't publish articles like this. The last thing I would ever want is for my wife to know where I am all the time. I hate apps like these but I recognize that it is inevitable that they will be mainstream. My wife has an iPhone so I usually tell her that most things aren't compatible between our devices. She'll wise up soon enough. I am a huge soccer fan and I'm known to be at a game and not really helping my mom repair her fence. I can also think of many other reasons why a guy might not want to disclose his location!!
  • For the exact opposite reason, I'm glad apps like this exist.  My wife can see when I'm on my way home from work and can start getting dinner ready.  Conversly, if she breaks down I can find and get to her in an emergency.  Plus, I have two small children.  They love seeing where mommy and daddy are, even when we aren't home when my parents watch them.  I guess some of us have less to hide than others.   Also, soccer sucks.
  • Really? It sucks so much that its the most popular sport in the world?
  • Soccer indeed sucks, ....cos the rest of the world dont play soccer, but football!!
  • Lol exactly, I wonder when Americans will finally learn that its football not soccer. What you guys call football the rest of the word calls pussy rugby.
  • If there was a sport called pussy rugby I would watch it everyday.
  • LOL best comment yet!
  • I like football soccer... but the only good thing about the football in USA (and the reason that I dislike it) is that you can actually be eating, drinking, playing something in you phone, talking, etc. and you won't miss any part of the action because you know the game is really, really, really slow... same can be said about baseball.
  • Yeah, baseball is more like a social gathering rather than truly watching a sport for the sake of watching sport.  Many people who don't even like or care about baseball go to baseball games just because it's a great way to hang out with friends.  It's a sport that ANYONE can attend and enjoy.  Football fans are there to watch football and support their team.  It's different.  I enjoy both types of spectating.
  • McDonalds sucks and it's the most popular restaurant in the world.
  • Justin Beiber, the Chicago Cubs, and NASCAR are really popular, too.  I'm failing to follow your logic of POPULAR = GOOD argument here.
  • I'm not a proponent of hiding stuff from a significant other but I'm an adult and I find it very odd to have my whereabouts tracked. I see the usefulness at times so turning it off and on as needed could be valuable but the moment you turn it off, red flags are going to go off even if 100% innocent. It would be cool that if you're viewed that you be alerted that you were just spied on.
  • You are not being spied on if you grant the access. We use thus app and love it. Helps us keep track of the kids and my parents.
  • OH NO you didn't just say that!
  • You're just not conditioned to like soccer that's all.
  • Yeah, that's called "Co-dependence". It's unhealthy.
  • Yup now it will be easier to slip Tyron out the back door before you get home.
  • LOL
  • This... Watch your step dog. Lol
  • If your not going anything wrong then there is nothing to hide. I'm my just saying.
  • Exactly the same argument NSA and all those fother muckers use to spy on the entire planet. By the way, it´s you`re not your. YOU`RE welcome. Edit: Nevermind. That sentence doesn`t make any sort of sense.
  • My wife isn't the government.  I whole-heartedly agree where the government is concerned. Trust issues with the government is healthy.  Trust issues with the person you married isn't.  If we have to hide what we're doing from each other we shouldn't be married.
  • If you have to keep tabs on your spouse's location you shouldn't be married. People are autonomous individuals, not fucking pets.
  • Perfect example: Bill and Hillary Clinton!
  • Agreed. Nice to see some people have a normal view of this.
  • Dude its easy, just be honest with your wife and you won't have that kind of issues.
  • Honesty is the best policy in most cases. That said, tracking your spouse's location isn't honesty in any form. It's possessiveness and lack of trust from start to finish. Let's be crystal clear here: if you need to track your spouse, you DON'T trust them.
  • Let's be more honest, there are multiple legitimate reasons to have it than your paranoia. Someone is late, oh they're stuck on the interstate. Call them, accident? I'm on my way. I also don't sit and wait on my wife to do her shopping. I go do my own. Check phone, oh she's left that store and gone to Macy's, can meet them there. There have been many actual and real world uses we use this for. I don't drive a black helicopter neither does my wife.
  • This is hilarious it seems like your dead serious but I find it funny your giving Louis CK a run for his money
  • I can think of a dozen legit reasons why I wouldn't want my whereabouts tracked. Ignoring all of them, this is just a privacy concern for me. There is a broader concern that this kind of living will be standard even in a social and professional context. I could go on for hours about privacy issues but this is wpcentral.
  • I couldn´t agree more. This is getting ridiculous and creepy.
  • Damn! You should be a motivational speaker! I almost jumped off my chair and screamed after I read your post! :)
  • Do you realize how many apps and games are on iOS?
  • Aren't there like 30? The rest are Flashlights, Boobs and copies of the original 30 right? lol
     
  • LMAO!
  • Tango massenger.. Bee talk.... Zynga poker.. I really need them
  • lol how many messenger do we need :P .....but its good for platform if those app came....
  • How many do we need? All of them
  • Didn't we use to have Tango? Could've sworn it came preinstalled on my Lumia 900...
  • I wouldn't expect anything from Zynga based on their (lack of) support for their current games (Draw Something and Words with Friends). The reviews for both are full of people complaining of how much the apps crash but they haven't touched either in over a year. They're not interested in supporting WP8.
  • Oovoo...video API for app wtf Microsoft bring dat shit fb video upload..but no app gap ftw
  • What?
  • Already enjoying it for a couple of hours. Stalker mode, engage .
  • What prevents the kids from uninstalling the app?   Or your spouse for that matter?...  ;-)
  • The threat of taking the kids phone away if he/she does uninstall it. And if your spouse doesn't have enough faith in you to leave it installed voluntarily you need a new spouse because they obviously have something to hide and can't be trusted.
  • Yep, taking the phone and cancelling all activities...because (as a parent) if I can't know where my child is, then they don't need to be there...safety first!
  • Really? Even if your sneaking off to buy your wife her 10th Anniversary present? Anyway my wife has access to my personal email. But I wouldn't mind this app for my kids.
  • Not that hard to leave the phone next to your chair when you go.
  • Let´s see if i got that right... You`re (hypoteticaly) the guy who wants spy on his wife and if she doesn´t like it because then she can`t be trusted?!?! I`ve got one word for you: THERAPY.  
  • Hang on - I would assume that this would be the sort of thing you discuss with your wife and both agree on it's usefulness.  While it might be creepy, you don't need to watch it constantly.  I like the idea of it telling my wife when I leave work.  It has some great benfits for a family.   But the bigger picture here is that it has come to the WP platform, which is a good thing.
  • If YOU have so little trust in your spouse that you feel you need an app to track him or her, you should really get a divorce, because your marriage is a sham. That is all.
  • From tip to post in about an hour.  You're fast
  • been using it for a couple of weeks now and its good, living in an earthqauke zone my wife ands i find this kind of app invaluable but untill now nothing cross platform worked for us,this has filled the gap nicely.    
  • Need walkies I'd you're really concerned. Cell towers frequently get overloaded in emergency situations... Though if you mean family emergencies, then you'll be ok.
  • Yep, got a set of some really good ones, and amazingly they work, not the 26 miles as advertised, but they do about half that.
  • Does it work cross platform? We have iPhones in the family
  • We are proudly available and fully functional across iOS, Android and now Windows phones!
  • Thanks for supporting WP. We greatly appreciate it!
  • Great. Going to install on my Daughter's iPhone and relax...I think
  • Nice of you to join here and comment... on the other hand, what took you so long! :)
  • LOL We're a tiny team, which is surprising considering how many users we have! The whole company is only about 50 people, total. That includes admin, marketing, infrastructure, everything! But we're here now, so that counts for something, right?
  • Thank you for the app. FWIW, the FAQ on your web site needs to be updated now that Windows Phone is supported.
  • Yes, I've passed a reminder message on to the folks who take care of that. :)
  • Working well so far and looks very well done. Competing the iPhone version side by side with the Windows Phone version I have to say, the WinPhone one looks a while lot better!
    I do think the price for the Premium version is a bit steep. Might be better as an a la carte menus. All I need is the' track a non-smartphone tool, but at $60/year its just too much. Any chance you will consider unbundling the services?
  • Does your app requires a data plan (or Wi-Fi)? My wife doesn't have one. Thanks, this app sounds perfect for us!
  • Thanks! Now please update your website and promotional materials to include Windows Phone :)
  • so say i have 3 family members that have WIndows Phones and one that has an Android phone, will all of us be able to communicate using the app, or will the odd man be out of luck (Android) ?
  • Easy peasy! We're fully cross-platform to connect all of your iOS, Android and Windows phones!
  • Thanks Life 360!
  • Not so functional of my Nokia Lumia 920. The app opens, trying to load the circle and then closes back to the Applications page.
  • Seems excessive and it doesn't foster trust.
  • It's not really about trust anymore, the US is just too twisted of a place now. Too much great crime. But then again, can't we just call the NSA and find out where everyone is?
  • The US has the lowest crime rate it's ever had, actually. We're just a nation of whining cowards now, that's all.
  • yep my wife has iphone and i have a  lumia 920 and i works well, but ive talked her into getting a 930 when it comes out bye bye apple :)
  • +925
     
  • Liking it so far. My wife installed it on her 520 and it let me know when she got home tonight lol
  • Thanks for the post, Sam! We're pretty excited to be adding Windows to our lineup!
  • Thanks for supporting WP
  • Hello. Could you please clarify how does it take location ? Background task every 30 minutes ? Or does it tap into MS servers to take our current location from there ?
  • I imagine it's background task on WP8, and (maybe) taps into Microsoft's geofencing service in 8.1.
  • I would also like to know how it works.
  • We use a background agent to update every 30 minutes. In addition, if someone in your circle hits the update button on their phone, we'll wake up your phone and send a location.
  • Very nicely done app. Glad to see you followed the Windows Phone design.
  • Just installed. I like it so far.. I just hope it doesn't drain my battery by pinging my location all the time.
  • About time. Glad this app was finally a available on WP.
  • Awesome
  • So this app is a kind of Room featore of Windows Phone
  • Except better, because Microsoft abandoned WP Rooms.
  • What the hell? I'm the one that gave the tip a month ago!!! I had it the day it came out...... Thanks for the recognition.. jerks!
  • Ease up, you're talking about a part of the article that barely anyone reads, let alone truly cares about. We're here for news on apps, not your fifteen seconds of missed fame.
  • Wouldn't you be pissed if at your work someone else got recognition for something you did? I think so...... Same concept here, I tipped them off a month back about this app, I contract life360 personally about if they were going to develope for wp8.1 and they emailed me back, their CEO even had something to say to me.... So when I don't get credit where credit was due yah it kinda pisses me off a bit. Especially since after they now put this up almost a month since I tipped them about it. I even forwarded the first email I got from life360 all this other guy has done was prolly said hey new app check it out..... After I gave specifics..... Kinda demeaning when they want everyday users to tip them about missed apps and they don't recognize the right person that tipped them in the first place.....
  • I whacked off a bit ago and no one cared either, don't feel bad.
  • I care
  • Lol
  • Did you have a catchy subject line? Did you summarize your tip in 1-2 sentences? The editors don't have time to read through the site's material to figure out if they should post about it or not, so this may be why it didn't get picked up.
  • As much as I love Microsoft and Windows Phone. They still have lots of time for their app ecosystem to mature and develop as well as phone features. But has been my favorite platform thus far.
  • The article should have said that tracking someone's location without their permission may be unlawful.
  • The other party gives permission by installing the app and agreeing to share location with you. This isn't a covert action.
  • Thanks for clarifying.
  • Security is the elephant in the room here. Can it be guaranteed a third party will not access the information directly (employees) or indirectly (hackers & governments). If it's anything we've learned over the last year is that 'better' digital platforms have had security breaches than this company and intelligence agencies are all to capable in skimming exactly what they want.
  • Nice!
  • Why don't they add it to family room? I much prefer the baked in stuff.
  • ditto. Windows Phone Rooms could have been great. In reality its not, why Microsoft abandoned it is beyond me.
  • +920
  • Yes, if MS would add tracking to family room, it would be perfect. We use the shared calendar, private chat and notes a lot in our house. On the rare occasion that I want to track a phone, I just log into WindowsPhone.com with the kid's account and use find my phone.
  • Yay finally
  • This feels like what Windows Phone Rooms could and should have become if Microsoft hasn't abandoned it after WP8 came out.
  • +920 Exactly my thoughts!
  • Yea it would be cool for the rooms to have all of these features
  • The only problem with Rooms was that it was only fully utilized if everyone had WP. I wanted to use it, but I'm the only one with WP until the rest of the phones go off contract.
  • I rather like it. with kids attending classes in Boston and using both metro and city public transportation. It's useful.
  • So my girlfriend will spy on me now.
  • I think this kind of app is, quite frankly, creepy as fuck. No way in hell I want anyone--family and friends included--tracking my location. It's called BOUNDARIES, people :p
  • My sister would probably use this for my nephew She's on android and he's on WP .. I hope more developers see that they would have a huge number of DLs from the fact that people want to be able to tell a friend / family about an app and they get it no matter what Os there running or you switch phones and still can use all the same apps
  • This app looks tempting. How handy to follow your family members. Now you can sit back and relax. Or can you? Why did my husband stop at the florist, but he comes home without flowers? Why is my child stopping in the park for 10 minutes instead of coming straight home? I better give him a call!! Ah great times, the wife is out and there's a great game on. But lets check on her just to be sure. Before you know it everyone is paranoid about everything and any form of trust needs to be backed up and anything that looks even remotely out of the ordinary needs explaining. Congratulations. Your family is destroyed.
  • I´m with you but i think you´re wasting your breath. Some people just dont get the value (or even the meaning) of TRUST.
  • But we do know the value of suckers.
  • I have a solution for you, don't install it.
  • Having it doesnt mean you have to look at it constantly. I have my kids Windows account passwords and can track their phones any time I want by logging into Windowsphone.com but I have only done it once when we were needing to pick up my daughter after an even an there was a miscommunication about whose house she would end up at and she wasnt answering our calls (she had it on mute). She ended up calling us back, but the tracking was handy in an emergency situation.
  • I can see how this could come in handy, if i was a pimp with a need to check on "Ma bitches". HELL NO!
  • Is this better than Locate My Family?
  • Why would I want my family to know where I am at all times?
  • Its for parents to be able to find their kids. You dont need to know it at all times, but there are rare occasions when its handy. Its great if you're at the mall or amusement park or something, or in an emergency.
  • My favorite review of the app: "This app is for stalkers. Uninstalled."
  • This doesn't show correct location on my L720. Uninstalled.
  • Its only as good at the location services on the device. When I am in my office, I just get a big red circle that covers probably a sq mile because the building shields my phone from the GPS satellites. When I walk outside or am in the car, it gets a very accurate pinpoint on my location.
  • I don't know if this was the case in either of your situations. But leaving WiFi on even if you're not using it will improve your location accuracy. 
  • It would be awesome if they build the additional features into the Rooms already available on the Windows Phone. Check-in, location sharing etc. would be great, we can already group-wide chat, calendar sharing photo/video sharing and the notes are great. Nothing like keeping a running grocery list in the notes. My whole family knows to put it on the grocery list for our family room so whe we go shopping we can just check-off everything everyone has already put on the list. 
  • I glad to see some people still have some bit of sense left. Convenience is always a trap.....I would love for the internet access shutdown for just one day. People would go insane. Just a bunch of laboratory rats. People use to fight for wars for privacy. But then again this is a useless transmission through the ether.
  • I'm all over this.  I currently pay ATT $15+ per month for their family map and it is very crappy.  Hopefully this will save me some $$ AND time.
  • Does anyone know if this app chews up data at a significant rate?  I just installed it, seems like it rocks, but I'm nervous....
  • Its difficult to give you exact numbers because there is a bit of overhead in making a secure connection to Life360 that the phone handles for us. However, once that connection is made, the amount of data we send is pretty small and its only once every half hour in the background. 
  • Happy to see more official Apps in the windows phone store. It shows that the companies are interested and it's healthy for the ecosystem. More people will be interested in migrating to the plataform if they find all their apps are here. That being said, I don´t think I would install the app. I think it's just a matter of privacy, sure the app seems to be very usefull and people has made several good points that almost made me go for it, but I still would feel as if people were constantly watching where I am, and I know it is something quite personal because other people are glad there is a way to let family know where they are... but to me, it goes like this: if I want them to know where I am then I will tell them. Not wanting to tell where I am does not mean I am hiding things or doing wrong things, it just means I appreciate mi privacy and freedom to just go some places without being watched. On the other hand... maybe it's just that some of us are worried that significant others might become stalkers without a real bad intention. It happens, give the people the resources and they might turn into something they are not. WhatsApp "last seen" is a good example.
  • Installed this on my L820 and seems pretty good and works well with my wife's iPhone too.  However, it only seems to update my location if I leave the app running (start it and then windows key out).  If I back-arrow out of it, it simply doesn't update my location any more.  As the back-arrow is the natural action to do, I end up with my location never being updated unless I remember to go back and open the app.  That can't be right can it?
  • I think I'm experiencing the same issues. It's like the app doesn't have the background services set up correctly.
  • I think this is a windows phone 8 issue, not 8.1 issue. My 920 updates itself easily, my wifes 520 does not update unless she has the app open, and I cannot check her location when I press the update button.    Great app though, we are hoping to use it to keep track of my daughter and allow us to find eachother when we are needed. 
  • Yeah, I am on WP8 (can't wait to get 8.1).
  • Hi Noahma, Out of curiosity, does that 520 have Skype or another VoIP application installed? I think the difference between your 920 and your wife's 520 is the 1GB of memory versus 512MBs. I think we're getting pushed aside when there are a few big apps competing for a small number of resources. There can be up to a minute between the time you hit update button and when the member's location finally updates. Also, when the app is in the background, the updates will only come every 30 minutes. However, when the app is open, the updates come every 15-30 seconds. 
  • I'm having the same problem. I'm on a Lumia 920, my wife on a 720; both are running 8.1. The app just doesn't seem to update in the background on either phone. I'm aware of the 30 minute limit, but it doesn't refresh at all. The last update from my wife's phone is several hours ago and when I press the update button, I get a 'could not locate' message after a few minutes. The same happens if the roles are reversed. Both phones are set up to allow background updates for this app. You mention that the app may be pushed aside for competing resources, but surely this doesn't happen every time it tries to update and this shouldn't affect my wife getting updates from my 920, right? And pressing the update button should get around this anyway, or not?  
  • We did some testing today and it seems like the update feature stopped working with the most recent Windows Phone 8.1 update. The method we use for tracking location in the background is undocumented, so I'm not shocked that it stopped working. However, Windows Phone 8.1 has excellent background location support. When we update our app to be Windows Phone 8.1 specific, our background location will start working for you. 
  • Any idea of what time frame that would be? Also will it still be limited by the 30 minute refresh? Will the request location also work when the app is in the background? Lastly, do you have any plans in having a web api for getting location info? I have a home automation setup, and it would be awesome to be able to ask the house where other family members are, or have the house do actions based on location events. E.g. the house sees that one of us is on the way home and turns the AC on, etc.
  • An 8.1 specific app depends on how fast Windows Phone 8.1 gets out there. When we switch to 8.1, we'll still be limited to a 30 minute cycle. However, 8.1 supports geo-fencing, so we'll break out of that 30 minute limitation if you've added Places to your Circle. Getting request location in the background on Windows Phone 8 was a miracle. Its one of core features; we'll figure out how to get it working in 8.1 too. 
  • None of the features work in the background on my WP8.0, (normal location updating or request location).  The only time they work for me is if I go into the app and WINDOWS-button out of it, but then doing that causes it to update every 15 seconds or so, so it then drains the battery in about 2 hours flat.  If I don't do that though, I get no updates at all so it is one extreme or the other :-(
  • Hey DeanoV6, I saw your post on the other thread as well. I believe Life360's background agent is crashing on your phone and things aren't getting cleaned up properly. This seems to be affecting a lot of people. We're on it. I can't be specific about a timeframe, but I can say we'll be updating the app frequently. 
  • That's great news Luke, I suspected there was something funny going on like that but I was struggling to get the concept of what was happening through to support. For your information, if I Windows-key out of the app and look at my "background tasks" settings screen it looks like this with two entries for Life360: Life360 Family Locator
    Tap to close     The apps in this list can continue to do things in the background, even when they're not open. Battery
    allowed Facebook Beta
    allowed Life360 Family Locator
    allowed This is the scenario where it updates every 15 seconds. If, however, I back-arrow out of it, the background-tasks screen looks like this and then it never updates: Battery
    allowed     Facebook Beta
    allowed Life360 Family Locator
    allowed  
  • Just got an update for life360 and, touch wood, it now seems to be behaving and working properly. I'm finally getting my location updated in the background and at sensible time intervals. Thanks for working on this.