The Best Location Tracking Apps Along With Their Features

In the 21^st century, staying connected with your loved ones is important. For that cause, location tracking apps provide you best assistance.

The market has seen so many location tracking apps like Google Maps, Geo Tracker, and more within a few years. Finding the best real-time location tracking app can be overwhelming. Don’t worry, we will take the work on our shoulders and will provide you with the best apps that have wide functionalities and serve your individual needs.

The article below has discussed many important aspects of location-tracking apps such as features, downloads, and the best tracking app to look forward to in 2024.

What are Location-Tracking Apps & How do they Work?

To confirm, you have used location apps like Google Maps to get directions and reach a particular location. But what are these location-tracking apps and how do they work?

Location tracking apps are those apps that take the help of Global positioning system (GPS) technology installed on your phone. Through this, apps get to know about a user’s location anywhere on the earth. There are systems that are used to record & know real-time locations of devices throughout the world. These devices can be anything and everything, they can be your pet trackers, tablets, or smartphones.

Now, let’s get to know how phone location apps and tracker apps work.

How Location Tracking Apps Work?

Read below about the working of the location tracking apps

1. GPS Technology

To find your location, GPS technology is used which can get signals from satellites. But it works best when you are outdoors. Otherwise, it can tell approx. a few meters from your location. Yes, it is the same technology that is powering construction remote monitoring, employee tracking, pet tracking and even knowing about your family & friends. This app is a powerhouse of tracking apps.

2. Data Collection

After the app collects data from the GPS satellite, it then forwards to the server. The app makes sure to collect vital information such as date, time, and speed in real-time to provide you with updated information.

3. Transmitting the Data

The server acts as a primary center that collects data & stores data from numerous devices. Then, these apps utilize this data to show you real-time location.

4. User Access

Users can access the data through the app’s interface and see the location on their device.

5. Privacy Settings

The best thing about these GPS location tracking apps is they allow users to enable and disable their location and keep their privacy in check.

Market Overview of Location Tracker Apps

If you are planning to invest in a location-tracking app, then these statistics will surely make you understand the worthiness of the market.

As per the survey, it was found that:

• The global GPS market is anticipated at $3,131.1 million by 2024 & by 2034 will increase to $ 7,228 million.
• The GPS tracker market will see an increase of 7% from 2024 to 2034.
• In the GPS tracker market, fleet management is leading with a market share of 8%.

Market statistics clearly indicate why you should invest in on-demand app development & leverage the growing market of location tracker apps. There are several types of tracking location apps available, among which you can invest in your preferred type.

Speaking of types of location tracking apps, that brings us to our next section.

Types of Tracking Location Apps

It goes without saying that there are different types of location-tracking apps present in the market. We shall be discussing them below-

Type 1: Map Apps

The list won’t even begin without mentioning Map apps, these map apps use GPS satellite connection to know about your current location and guide you to reach any destination. Apart from this, real-time location tracking is utilized by map apps to assist you in finding nearby gas stations or hotels. Driving direction apps like Waze, Apple Maps & Google Maps are some location tracking apps.

Type 2: Ride-Hailing Apps

For sure, this wasn’t unexpected. The ride-hailing apps like Uber track your locations to inform nearby drivers about your pick-up location & guide them to reach your place. Famous apps like Lyft also take advantage of this location-based technology.

Type 3: Cell Phone Location Tracker App

GPS location services are used to search for the target device in real-time. The apps need to be downloaded on both parties’ cell phones, one from which you are searching & second is the target device. Glympse & Life360 are among the best location-tracking apps.

Type 4: News and Weather Apps

When it comes to news and weather apps they track location to tell you about the weather forecast of the area. These weather apps gather data from different sources including weather stations, satellites, Radar systems, and more to share the right weather forecast with you.

Type 5: Public Transportation Tracking Apps

As the name implies, these apps are used to provide you with information on commuting options. So, what happens is these apps analyze your input to understand your requirements and share with you relevant information about the public transport you are searching for. Moovit and OneBusAway are some examples.

Type 6: Car Location Tracking App

Well, well, this was supposed to be on the list. Car location tracking apps help you to know your car’s whereabouts from time to time. Speedo track & My Vehicles are some of the apps for tracking the location of your vehicle.

As you can see, above we have discussed different types of location tracker apps that are used in different industries. Now let’s look at some of the best location tracking apps for Android or iOS that are helping users. And, utilized by businesses, integrating the best geofencing software to improve customer engagement and stay ahead of the competition.

List of 15+ Best Location Tracking Apps

From GPS competencies to geofencing software, these apps have great features to help with individual needs. The fact that these solutions can be used for different devices and by several industries makes their features self-evident. So, without any delay, let’s dive in

1. Google Maps

The list should start with the elephant in the room. Google Maps is one of the top location tracking apps that tracks your location and guide you for your route. Backed by Google, it offers aerial photography, street maps, and immediate traffic details & 3D view of the street.

It is not hard to digest that as of now, this web mapping platform has a staggering number of one billion plus monthly users. The range and impact of Google Maps are astounding and surely are used as an inspiration for businesses to hire mobile app developers and build something similar.

Features:

• Share your journey with your friends and family.
• Get to know about traffic on your route.
• Check businesses and their busy hours.
• Take a fuel-efficient route.
• You can keep offline maps updated.

2. Apple Maps

On the list of the best GPS tracker apps that assist you in providing real-time direction, we have ‘’ Apple Maps’’. It is not hard to guess who is behind the app. Well, Apple launched its web mapping service in 2012 to assist users in knowing about arrival time while walking, cycling, or further navigation.

Moreover, the app also integrates Siri, its famous assistant, to get to your desired locations and for a better view using 3D landscape. Apart from this, it also has a‘’ Flyover’’ mode that shows overly densely populated areas to aware you & help in better decision making. Having so many features for the mapping service surely made it a user favorite within no time. We understand why people find it one of the best location-tracking apps for iOS.

Features:

• Clean and easy navigation.
• Works on all Apple devices.
• Get traffic details easily.
• Use flyover mode to learn about populated areas.
• Preinstalled on iOS and Mac devices.

3. Find My iPhone

if you have misplaced your iPhone or Mac somewhere, no need to panic now. You can simply locate your phone without getting a headache. All you have to do is download Find My iPhone which is a cell phone locator app and sign in through your iCloud ID. You can then use this app for real-time tracking of your device location, to lock it, or to erase data from it in case of any theft.

Apart from that, just in case your phone is lost. The app also has a feature of ”Lost Mode’’. This feature enables the device to lock with a password, and even in lost mode, the device can track where it was and report you with its current location through the app. Amazing, right?

Features:

• Lock your device with a passcode.
• Erase the data and settings of your device.
• View the location history of your app.
• Battery charge indicator.
• Play any sound at full volume to find your phone.

4. Waze

Waze is one of the famous location-finding apps that helps users get to know about their destination with real-time information. Basically, it is a community of drivers helping their fellow drivers. Get to know about every detail from traffic alerts, crashes, police, construction, traffic-avoiding reroutes, to low gas updates, and stay up-to-date on your journey.

Driving direction apps like Waze have helped millions with real-time road alerts. So, you can reach your location without any hurdles. Also, understand that this app is not for oversized vehicles, but overall it is a great app for drivers to get to their destination safely. Taking inspiration, businesses are looking to build trucker path apps to earn good by assisting truck drivers.

Features:

• Get to know road-restrictions through the app.
• Offers voice navigation.
• Get to know about real-time traffic.
• More accurate ETAs.
• Community-based navigation app.

5. Life360

Family is so important that we’d do everything to keep them safe. Life360 understands your need and offers its assistance as a family location-sharing app. This allows you to elevate the safety of your family members through numerous features such as roadside assistance, SOS alerts, Identity theft protection& much more.

Also, the app uses geofencing technology, which is a crucial aspect of tracking location. This feature enables them to create safe zones for their family, once someone is out of the zone they get alerted quickly. It is a great app to locate someone and stay connected with your loved ones. Besides that, it also helps to track your keys, phone, and wallet making your life easier than ever.

Features:

• Get location alerts.
• One tap directions.
• Share your location with your family.
• SOS Alerts.
• Bluetooth tracker to find keys, & phone.

6. Find My Kids

Find My Kids is a perfect example of on-demand app development done right. Well, as we helped you above to find your lost phone, there is another app that helps to find your kids. It is understandable that being a parent you can’t keep your eyes on your kid all the time, after all, you also have your work. You can’t watch them all the time but this app sure can.

This app acts as a tracking location app to track your kids & if you can’t get hold of them, you can listen to your kid’s surroundings to know about their location. You can also add custom locations to get personalized alerts once you find yourself in any crowded place. Apart from that, you can check their location history and it also lets you know their real-time location if they are not answering their phone. This app surely works as a companion for parents & helps them to keep their children safe.

Features:

• Geo locator app.
• Great app for parental control.
• Offers application control to let you know what app they are using.
• Offers SOS signal.
• Listen In feature to hear background voices.

7. Sygic GPS Navigation

Sygic is one of the top location tracking apps that helps you navigate long roads without needing an internet connection. The app provides support through voice assistance, live traffic updates and real-time navigation alerts, as well as turn-to-turn directions.

The app is trusted by millions of people as one of the best location-finding apps. The reason is that the app provides a 3-D map on a smartphone that you can use without any internet to get proper navigation. There are so many advanced features, guided navigation & much more that you can easily find your way to your destination.

Features:

• 3D offline maps to countries across the world.
• Accurate real-time information.
• Offers Android Auto connectivity.
• Free map updates yearly.
• Customize your navigation with the right directions.

8. AllTrails

Whether you want to hike, go on a run, or have a nice walk with your dog. AllTrails is curated to be your companion in every condition. The app has 60 million fellow explorers, you can search over 400,000 trails from around the world and get to plan your next trail.

if you want dog-friendly, kid-friendly, wheelchair-friendly, or stroller-friendly trails, the app will help in proper route planning and provide you with in-depth knowledge of your trials. The app has so many amazing features such as saving your favorite trail or growing your community, you can do it all and make your trip more happening.

Features:

• Download offline maps for route assistance.
• Get to know your route such as air quality, pollen & more.
• Keep your friends aware.
• Get real-time map details.
• Explore an ad-free plan.

9. My Family Locator

There are so many things that can go wrong when you are not with your family members. The app has so many features for your use such as getting notified once your children get to their destination, sharing your location with your family through a family map, you can create private groups, setting up your safe zones & doing much more. Get to know about your family and children as well as connect with them instantly from anywhere.

The app has a live location tracker that can help track the cell phones of your loved ones. Also, if your kid gets lost they can send you a quick alert through an SOS button for their exact location giving meaning to its use of being a real-time location tracking app. You can stay connected and track everyone & make sure of their safety with the app.

Features:

• Send SOS.
• Create safe/unsafe zones.
• See the location history of your family members.
• Stay in touch with instant messages.
• Get alerted through notifications.

10. Kommot

Allegedly, Kommot is the best location tracker app that helps riders plan their tracks and get back with the app. Whether you want to explore a place or go on the highest hiking trail, this location-based app is for you.

What makes it a great location finder app is it guides you through turn-by-turn GPS voice navigation, downloads your trail map to find a way without the internet, seamlessly harmonizes across different devices & enjoys your track.

The app aims to keep a strong focus on community building. As a result, if you find interesting places or want to visit someone else’s choice of places, you can get to know about them through the “Highlights”. The app also tells you about the rider’s speed, their remaining & traveled distance. Once you complete your ride, you can add photos for others to see.

Features:

• Offline Trail Maps.
• Browse Highlights.
• Harmonize with different devices such as Tablets.
• Believes in community building.
• Browse highlights.

11. Map My Run By Under Armour

If you have an interest in running and wonder “what apps track location for runners especially”. Your search becomes over here. Map My Run is especially for runners and helps them to stay on track by providing them assistance with the 60 million athletes community. As a result, the app has gathered those people who are aware and stay committed to health & fitness.

What’s more? Well, the app offers personalized training plans, coaching tips & workout routines to keep you active no matter where you go. Also, you can find a place to run nearby and then add it to your favorites & share the path with others.

Features:

• Collection of workout routines.
• Sync with different wearable’s such as Google Fit.
• Get visual and audio progress updates in real time.
• Allows importing data for better analysis.
• Offers a custom training plan.

12. iSharing

Not seeing your kid can cause panic for any parent. Well, for your peace of mind, you can utilize phone apps to track the location of your children. One such app is ‘iSharing’. This app allows real-time location sharing through which parents can know about their children’s vicinity. One such feature that stands out in iSharing is its “walkie-talkie.” You can send voice messages to your family members and receive their replies easily.

It is among the perfect family location-sharing apps that provide real-time locations for your children and help you to easily communicate with them. No need to send where are you texts as the app got you covered, it will alert you when your family members reach or leave the destination.

Moreover, if your family member is in danger they can shake the phone which will send a panic alert for an emergency. Also, you can receive a notification whenever your family member is nearby, surely making it one of the best phone location tracking apps.

Features:

• See real-time locations on the map.
• See the history of family members for 90 days.
• Receive real-time alerts from family members.
• Offer GPS location tracker for lost phones.
• Send a panic alert quickly.

13. Geo Tracker

If you want to go on a trip with a long route, then ‘’ Geo Tracker” is for you. This app has so many features that you won’t get lost and have a guide with you. Yes, it lets users track their route, pin their favorite points on their trip, and give an in-depth analysis of stats such as altitude, slopes, maximum speed, length of your track, and more.

Geo tracker is surely the best app for tracking that allows users to see others’ routes in KML so that they can get a good overview of their track. Not only this, the app records your track and nearby ambiance completely using a scheme from OSM. Even if you are offline, the app has already saved your viewed map and can assist you on your road effortlessly. It is surely the best Android locator app that trails your route, examines stats, and shares your whereabouts with your friends. So, next time you pack your bag, make sure to give this app a try.

Features:

• Good for tracking long-distance directions.
• Efficient battery usage.
• Track Sharing (GPX & KML).
• Offline tracking.
• Offers screenshot sharing.

14. Glympse

Glympse is one such app that allows you to share your location with your friends and family & let them know about your location effortlessly. It is the best phone tracking app that allows you to utilize GPS capability in one of two ways through a web-based map who don’t have glympse downloaded to their phone.

Second, share your location within the Glympse app that has the app installed on your phone. It is often known as ‘’Sending a glympse’’. No sign-up is required if you are using a web-enabled device. This app is perfect for businesses and people to share their location safely, yet temporarily. Whether you are running late for a meeting or going to meet your friends, let them know you are on your way through the Glympse app.

Features:

• Offers versatile geo-location platform.
• Allows creating private groups.
• Provide Glympse tags to share the best locations with other people.
• Offer three customizable products.
• The GPS tracker app allows sharing temporary locations.

15. Tile

A product of Life360, it is an app for tracking your misplaced things including your wallet, key & more. The app has integrated Bluetooth trackers that send a signal. When the device pings the signal with the Tile app installed in it, It collects approx. The GPS location of the phone/device pinged to help you find the lost device serves as the best phone locator app too.

As per their claims, Tiles has found 1.45 million keys, 55k luggage & much more. After using it, you will surely like this app just like other users. You can utilize their basic plan and then switch to the premium plan to find your belongings quickly.

Features:

• Set up smart alerts.
• Stay connected to your devices.
• Let users be aware of the 30-day location history.
• Compatible with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.
• You can find close & far away things.

16. Gaia GPS.

Creating location-tracking apps like Gaia GPS is not possible without following a thorough location-based app development guide. The app is so versatile and useful for any & every adventure. All you have to do is just plan your next trip & the rest of things will be assured by this app.

Whether you want to experience the best hiking or plan a road trip, the app allows you to explore the wilderness with offline and easy-to-read maps. Hike confidently and tick on your bucket list, all thanks to the Gaia GPS whose extensive features have made it among the top location-finding apps. Furthermore, you can access 300+ maps that include minute details like weather forecasts, private lands & more.

Features:

• Plan your route easily.
• For offline use, you can download maps.
• You can share your tracks with your friends.
• Powerful search engine.
• Get access to the map catalog.

17. Follow Mee GPS tracker.

One of the many reasons people build employee time-tracking apps is to monitor their employees & improve their efficiency. Well, with FollowMee GPS tracker, you can do it easily. How? This app helps to track employee phones & knows about their whereabouts. Moreover, it can be used to track anyone’s phone be it your family, company, or employee.

It works as the best location app for Android & iOS. To utilize it, you can get it installed on the phone you want to pursue. It can be used to track multiple devices from desktop or mobile browsers. Moreover, you can view their location history whenever you want. Sure, it is a great app to track locations that can be used for personal and business as well.

Features:

• Monitor location easily.
• Provide a level of data privacy.
• Enables tracking of multiple devices.
• Offers on-demand updates remotely.
• Support non-internet contingency.

18. My Location-Track GPS & Maps

While talking about the best location-tracking app, how can we leave behind My Location-Track GPS & Maps?

This multipurpose app excels at helping you find specific places or addresses that you’re interested in exploring.

Moreover, the app tracks your location to record your movement and then shows the paths you’ve taken at a later time. Simply put, it shows you route history that may help you in the future to visit the same place again.

Features

• Show you route history.
• See nearby places.
• Get directions.
• Share location.
• Data Export.

19. Eyezy – GPS Location Tracker

Knowing about your children’s location brings peace of mind. To help you with that, Eyezy – GPS Location Tracker can be a useful tool.

It’s a location-tracking app that targets a very specific audience i.e. parents and children. Eyezy helps to monitor children’s whereabouts and even shows you their movement over a specific period (often past 30 days).

Moreover, if your child is in danger, they can press the panic button and you will be notified through the app. The app will show you real-time location updates of your child allowing you to reach them whenever needed.

Features

• Track location in real-time.
• See location history.
• Create virtual boundaries through Geofencing.
• Track apps your child uses on their device.
• See their social media activities.

20. GeoZilla – Find My Family

Do you want to track your family’s whereabouts? GeoZilla is your lifesaver app.

Through this, Family Members can share their real-time location with each other on a private map. This allows us to see where everyone is at a glance, nurturing peace of mind.

You can see where your family members have been throughout the day or a specific period. And, this can be a helpful way to understand other movements and routines.

One stand-out feature is in case of any car accident, GeoZilla sends an alert to emergency contacts, potentially saving lives. As a result, it’s considered a top location-tracking app for many.

Features

• Communicate with family members within the app.
• Offers SOS button.
• Crash detection feature.
• Driver Safety reporting feature for safe driving.
• Shows location history.

How Nimble AppGenie Can Help You Create a Location-Tracking App?

The success of these location tracking apps like Waze, Life360 & more has surely inspired businesses to create similar apps. These apps are a necessity for people, so investing in this industry is surely a viable option for your business. Although there are lots of locator apps present in the market, it doesn’t mean the market is flooded. There is always room for one more.

If you are willing to build such an app by taking the help of a reliable mobile app development company that works towards the same goal as you, then you don’t have to look further than Nimble AppGenie. We are experts in building similar solutions. Our team of expert developers & designers will create apps with great UI/UX design and recent trends that speak volumes. Moreover, we work towards building such app that goes beyond your expectations. You can contact our experts to get solutions like Find My Kids & get a scalable and robust app.

Conclusion

The benefits of GPS technology have enabled businesses to utilize the best of it & work towards better and improved location tracking apps. Until we see more new apps, these are the best location-tracking apps for Android and iOS that will help you observe your family members and know about their well-being timely.

Whether you want to go on a trail or monitor your family, pet, or employees, these apps have everything you need to track. Make the most of these best phone tracking apps and keep your mind at peace. The above list talks about the types of phone locator apps & features as well as platform compatibility, you can find the one that suits your needs well.

FAQs

We are sharing some of the frequently asked questions to help you in further understanding.

Niketan Sharma

Niketan Sharma is the CTO of Nimble AppGenie, a prominent website and mobile app development company in the USA that is delivering excellence with a commitment to boosting business growth & maximizing customer satisfaction. He is a highly motivated individual who helps SMEs and startups grow in this dynamic market with the latest technology and innovation.