Setting Up Location Sharing the Right Way

The right way to set up location sharing comes down to three decisions.

Get those right, and kids' location sharing feels like a safety net instead of a leash. Get them wrong, and your kid feels checked on, while you spend the afternoon refreshing a map.

Let's cover the choices to make first and the exact settings in the Spacetalk App that keep updates flowing. It also covers the conversation to have before anything switches on.

Choosing What to Share, and With Whom

Share location only with adults you trust, and only through a Space you control. Everything else follows from that.

In the Spacetalk App, only the Space members you invite can see a location. Nobody joins by accident, and nothing is ever public. Your kid's Spacetalk Watch is a gated device too.

Your kid can't add a contact or join a new Space from the watch, because you control both from the App. Before you invite anyone, settle these four questions:

• Who needs location awareness every day?
  Usually the two parents or carers who handle school pick-up and drop-off.
• Who needs it only sometimes?
  A grandparent on Wednesdays or a regular after-school carer can join the Space without watching it daily.
• How often should the watch report in?
  The Spacetalk Adventurer 2 sends a location update every 15 minutes by default. You can change that in the App, but more frequent updates use more battery.
• Which alerts do you actually want?
  Choose arrive and leave alerts for home and school. Skip the park, the oval, the milk bar and every friend's house, or your phone will buzz all afternoon.

Here's the detail most parents miss. Kids' location sharing works differently on the watch and on a phone.

The watch shares its own location over its own 4G connection, so your kid doesn't need to carry a phone for you to see where they are.

Adults in the Space share location from their own phones, which is why the phone settings in the next section matter.

Setting Up Spaces and Places in the Spacetalk App

Build your Space first, add Places second, then fix your phone permissions. That order stops most "why isn't it updating?" moments before they start.

The Spacetalk App creates your first Space automatically when you sign up. Invite your people from there. Then add Places so the App can tell you when your kid arrives or leaves somewhere familiar:

• Home and school for the daily arrival and leaving alerts.
• A grandparent's house for the weekly visit.
• Sports training or the music teacher's studio for the regular after-school stops.

If your kid walks or rides the same way every day, add a Route too. The App sends you a nudge when they stray off track.

Next, check the permissions on your own phone. If you share location from your phone, these settings decide how often it updates:

• iPhone: Open Settings, then Apps, then Spacetalk, then Location. Choose Always and turn on Precise Location. Updates arrive every 30 seconds, or every 100 metres while you're moving.
• Android: Open Settings, then Apps, then Spacetalk, then Battery, and choose Unrestricted. Next, open Permissions and then Location. Select Allow all the time. Updates arrive every 30 seconds in the background, or every 3 minutes when Battery Saver is on.

Once it's running, the map shows a Place name when your kid is at one of your Places. It shows a suburb when they're somewhere else.

It shows a Route name when they're on a saved Route. Each entry carries an "updated" time, such as "updated 2 mins ago".

The App shows the latest confirmed location, not a live stream, so read the timestamp before you worry. Three things on the map are worth knowing:

• A blue ring around the profile photo means reduced accuracy. Being indoors usually causes it, as do weak GPS and a network switch.
• "Waiting for location" appears after more than 30 minutes without an update. It usually clears when the phone moves or regains signal.
• Refresh Location asks for an immediate update. Tap the member's profile picture, swipe the card menu upward and tap Refresh Location. The new location can take a minute or two to arrive.

Need to look back?

Open the member's profile, swipe up on the card, tap Watch Settings, then Location History. You can pick any day in the past 30 days and see every location update recorded that day.

Talking to Your Kid About Why

Tell your kid before you switch it on, and frame it as the thing that earns them more freedom. Kids' location sharing works best as a deal you make together. A kid who finds out later treats it as a secret.

Think about the first solo walk to school. Your kid wants to go alone. You want to know they got there. Location sharing lets both of those things be true, and you can say exactly that in plain words. Make the conversation specific:

• Say who can see it: Only the adults you've invited to your Space, and nobody else.
• Say what you'll look at: For example, you'll check when they're running late or when plans change, not every ten minutes.
• Let them use the Location icon: Your kid can tap the Location icon on the watch and confirm with the blue arrow to send you an update at any time.
• Show them the SOS button: Walk through who receives the alert and what it sends.
• Set a review date: Agree to revisit the Places and alerts in a few months as your kid gets older and more independent.

Setting Up Your First Space in the Spacetalk App

Your first Space already exists the moment you create your account, so you only need to fill it out. Here's the full run-through:

That's the whole setup. If you're still choosing a watch, the Spacetalk Adventurer 2 suits tweens aged roughly 8 to 14. It connects over its own 4G, so location sharing works without a paired phone. Check the product page for the current smartwatch bundle offers, and see the Watch Plans page for the SIM plan that runs it.

Done well, kids' location sharing is quiet. Your kid gets the walk to school, the bike ride, the sleepover and the trip to the oval. You get the alert that says "arrived" without having to ask.

Frequently Asked Questions