Life360 Blog

At Life360 we receive a lot of great stories from our users, from parents monitoring their new drivers to families staying connected while traveling across countries; the amount of different ways that people use our app has always been incredibly inspiring. Sometimes we receive more harrowing stories, ones that include locating drivers from accidents or loved ones getting lost in dangerous areas. This particular story is about a family rescuing their daughter from her abductor, which luckily, had a happy ending. The family has been gracious enough to let us share it with the Life360 community, in hopes that others will take strong precautions with their own family safety.

“To whom it may concern:

On behalf of my family, I’d like to express our deepest gratitude to your company and to all of the individuals who have worked to develop and maintain your Life360 app. Below, I’ve summarized our story of how your app saved the life of our precious sixteen year old daughter last month. We’ve heard from many who’ve obtained this app, once they heard of our harrowing experience. We realize that this post’s shares reached into the millions, many of which we earnestly hope will soon have become your customers. We’re so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate another Christmas with our family intact. Without your app, this would, most likely, never again have been a possibility.   Thanks to you, that chair that would otherwise have been empty at our Christmas table, is again filled with this beautiful, bubbly blessing whom we call Myleea.

– Roxanne”

Below is an abbreviated version of the story from Life360, to read the full story please visit the original post here. 

In late October of last year, 16-year-old Myleea was with her family spending their final hours together with her grandmother at a local hospital. Looking for some support, she decided to text a friend in the area that she had met at summer camp a few years back. They mostly kept in touch online, so she wasn’t very familiar with him in real life but was glad for the company. They stayed together in the lobby for a while until they decided to go for some coffee and fresh air. It wasn’t until they were in the car, driving further and further away from the hospital, that Myleea realized that this person whom she thought she could trust did not intend on bringing her back at all.

He thought he had disabled her phone—closing any contact with the outside world—but Myleea was smart enough to send her location to her parents using Life360 by briefly connecting to his phone’s hotspot. Gone for more than a few hours now, her worried and desperate parents got the authorities involved in their daughter’s disappearance. They followed the last known location of Myleea’s phone signal, which sent them to an extremely remote landfill, featuring nothing but acres and acres of desolate sand pits. They looked for hours late into the night with the police until they had to call the search off. Not to be deterred, the family went back to the location themselves after regrouping, searching deeper and deeper into the darkness. Finally, their flashlight reflected on a far-off, seemingly abandoned car. Upon closer inspection, they opened the door and found the man that had abducted Myleea!

They held the man at gunpoint while Myleea got out of the car, badly shaken but alive, and waited for the authorities to arrive. While they could hear sirens in the distance, all they could think about was how their daughter was returned and safe. Myleea and her family were able to spend that Christmas together as a family.

It’s stories like these that remind us that we’re not just building an app, we’re helping families and friends stay safe.

Could your family use peace of mind with Life360? Or do know one that could? Share this article with them today.

Chris Hulls, CEO & Co-Founder of Life360, the world’s leading location and driving safety service for families

For the last decade, the handheld computers we carry with us everywhere have drastically improved our lives — from transporting us where we need to go, allowing us to see a doctor digitally, managing our bank accounts and even saving our lives by calling 911 for us when we get in a car accident. We are in a world where we are spending an average of five hours of our day on our phones (that’s 2,617 interactions with our phones on average!) — even families are opening the Life360 app over 12 times a day.

You might say we’ve reached the limits of what we can do while on-the-go, but this is only the beginning of the mobile revolution.

In the new year, we will see innovations in mobile technology continue to improve lives in even more fundamental ways. Take the safety and security space: the connected home security industry is on track to reach $15.6 billion globally by 2021 with more and more companies introducing advanced alarm systems, doorbell cameras, etc. But all of these innovations have the same problem: they are limited to only protecting your actual home and what is inside it.

Meanwhile at Life360 we’ve been connecting families on-the-go, bringing them peace of mind and security beyond the home for years. Millions of families use our services across the world and in the U.S. alone, and Life360 has doubled its size in the last 12 months making 2017 our biggest growth year.

And today, with the official launch of ADT Go, this vision of leveraging mobile technology to better serve people in their daily lives is even more of a reality with ADT’s use of our entrusted, proprietary location tracking technology and driver safety services to arm their users on-the-go. Together we are redefining the concept of personal security with a shared goal to allow families to feel safe and synchronized beyond the front door, no matter where they are.

This new kind of personal security is just a taste of what’s to come for the mobile space, as major industries including health, insurance and finance shift to mobile-first innovation. Imagine a world where these industries turn to advanced location technology to improve their services for their users. The future of mobile will be a 360-approach to securing everything in your life, not just in your home. We are excited to be a part of it.

Thank you for trusting us with your family’s safety. As the year comes to an end, we find ourselves reflecting on all of the things that we accomplished to help shape a great 2017; we hope that your’s was just as memorable for you and your loved ones too. This year we were honored to:

• Welcome over 3 million new Life360 families
• Add more than 30 million new Places to your maps
• Send over 5 billion Place Alerts
• Monitor over 5 billion drives

We’re excited for an even bigger 2018! We have new things in store that will make staying connected with your family and friends an even better experience. We can’t wait to share it with you all.

It’s almost our favorite holiday of the year at the Life360 office: Halloween! From costumes to candy and pumpkin spiced lattes to spooky decorations, we pull out all the stops.

We know how fun this time of year can be, but we also know the worries that come from letting your family have their freedom to trick-or-treat, party, and gorge on candy.

To give you peace of mind this October, we’ve put together a few ways to stay safe on Halloween using Life360, as well as some general safety tips every parent should know.

Map A Trick-Or-Treat Zone

Map a trick-or- treat route with the family. Create a Place Alert for this area so you will get a notification if your children step outside of the zone and into unknown territory. To set up your trick-or-treat Place:

1. From the menu, hit ‘Places’
2. In the Places screen, hit ‘Add’ in the top right corner
3. Name your Place ‘Trick-or-Treat Zone’
4. Enter an address or move the map below to the desired zone
5. Slide the bar at the bottom to make the area smaller or larger, depending on your family’s route
6. Save the Place
7. On the next screen, make sure you turn on notifications for this Place
8. Click here to try adding a Place alert here

Halloween Party Arrival Alerts

Know your children have arrived safely at a party with Life360’s Driving feature. Driving events, like top speed, are listed in the app whether it is your teen driving or they are riding with a friend. To view Driving Behavior:

1. From the map, click on a Circle member’s picture
2. Click on a ‘Drive’ to view details
3. You can see the time, location and distance of the drive, as well as the Top Speed reached during the drive
4. You can also turn on Driving Alerts by taping Driving under the menu. By toggling alerts on, you can receive an alert after each drive to monitor top speed, phone usage and other driving events.
5. Click here to turn on Driving Alerts

Check Battery Levels

Make sure your teen leaves home with a fully charged mobile phone! Life360 shows battery levels on Circle members, so nudge your family to charge up when they’re running low on juice. Being available in case of emergency is important. To view a Circle member’s battery level: From the map, look to the right of a Circle member’s name for their battery percentage

Make Sure Your Trick-Or-Treat Route Is Safe By Checking Crime Alerts

It’s always a good idea to pre-plan your trick-or-treat route so you can make sure you know where you’re family is going, and not run into any unexpected bumps in the night. Keep your family safe by knowing about areas high in crime with easy-to-find hotspots on our map. Click each dot to view details of theft, burglary, vandalism, and registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. *Note, this is a US, Premium feature only.

Other Important Safety Tips

• Remind your child of everyday safety tips like looking left and right before crossing the street.
• Kids should stay on sidewalks at all times. Taking shortcuts through yards or on streets can lead to accidents.
• Establish a pre-planned route (and curfew if you have teens without supervision).
• Use reflective tape on costumes to make your child easy to see in the dark.
• Give your child a flashlight with fresh batteries.
• Tell your child to go only to homes with outside lights on.
• Make sure your child carries their phone and has Life360 set up!

Happy trick-or-treating!

Starting today, users can now receive family location notifications through their Alexa-enabled devices. Our newly launched skill for Alexa (beta) is among the first to offer opt-in notifications for Alexa, enabling families to ask for real-time updates sharing loved ones’ whereabouts and to receive alerts that family members have arrived or departed designated places like school, work or soccer practice.

“Our app makes it incredibly simple to see where your loved ones are and know that they’re safe throughout the day. We’re excited to introduce the Life360 skill with notifications for Alexa so that our users can receive updates about their loved ones’ whereabouts while at home even when their hands are busy with another task or their smartphone is in a different room,” said Alex Haro, co-founder and President of Life360. “This new integration extends how we deliver peace of mind to the millions of families who rely on our technology to stay connected.”

You must first enable the Life360 skill for Alexa and opt-in to notifications. Family location alerts delivered through the Life360 app will then also be delivered to Alexa. When there is new information to retrieve, users will be alerted by a chime and a yellow light ring on their Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Show device. Users can simply ask, “Alexa, what did I miss?” to retrieve Life360 alerts such as “Julie arrived at school,” “Julie left soccer” or “Dad left work.”

The Life360 skill for Alexa can also deliver near real-time family location updates on-demand. When users are at home, they can ask “Alexa, ask Life360 where is my family?” or “Alexa, ask Life360 where is Julie?” Life360 will deliver family members’ location information to Alexa so that users hear a response such as “Julie is at 500 Main Street and Dad is at work.” If a family member is driving at the time of the location request, Life360 will deliver that information to Alexa, as well, so the user hears “Julie is driving and near 640 Park Avenue.”

When users have set up geo-fences, called Places, in the Life360 app around favorite locations like school, work, or soccer practice, the location alert from Life360 will mention that place by the name the user has assigned it. In the absence of a geo-fenced place, Life360 will provide the nearest street address when delivering a location update to Alexa.

Click here to read more.

Please note, this notification skill is still in beta.

Apple’s new iOS11 comes with new features and changes. Some of these changes will directly affect Life360, and we’ve been working for months to ensure that everything works seamlessly when you and your family update your devices. That being said, we’ve written down a couple of key things that you should know regarding the update so you can have the best possible app experience.

1. Life360 requires “Always Allow” vs. “Only While Using” location permission.

When you install Life360 as a new user, iOS11 asks for a new tier of location permissions. They grant apps access to your location only while the app is being viewed on your screen.  While this might be enough for many types of apps (such as gaming or shopping), this level of permission is not enough for Life360 to work properly. The Life360 appneeds to be able to access your family’s location even when they don’t have Life360 open. This allows us to make sure everyone’s location is up to date and accurate at all times (and not just when the app is open on your device). If you can imagine: you would like to view your son’s location, but he does not currently have the app open on his phone, so you will not be able to see where he is.

As a result, for Life360 to work properly, it is essential that every one in your Circleselect the “Always Allow” location permission. If you’d prefer not to share your location all the time, the best way to do so is by toggling location sharing directly on or off within the Life360 app itself. To reiterate, Life360 only works with location permissions set to “Always Allow”, otherwise location accuracy will be intermittent and broken.

2. Do not disturb mode while driving.

iOS11 has introduced a new feature that allows you to mute notifications while a vehicle is in motion, so you can stay focused on the road. When your phone is in this state, you won’t be instantly alerted with Life360 notifications (or any notifications for that matter). While this is ultimately a safety feature, please be advised that Place Alert notifications will not appear during this time, but should show up and be available to you once you stop your drive.

3. Overall app performance should be the same.

Assuming you select “Always Allow”, Life360 will work the same on iOS11 as it does on iOS10. Remember, in order to have the best possible location accuracy regardless of iOS version, make sure everyone in your Circle keeps their Wi-Fi on. Turning on Wi-Fi on your device dramatically improves location accuracy, even if you are not actively connected to a Wi-Fi network. Your device uses the Wi-Fi sensor to detect nearby Wi-Fi base stations and narrow your exact location based on that information. With Wi-Fi on, your device can quickly locate you within the bounds of a building, but with Wi-Fi off your location accuracy can be off, as your device needs to rely on less precise location inputs (like the location of cell phone towers).  

This month we saw the devastation that occurred in many parts of the world brought on by natural disasters: Hurricane Harvey and Irma in the US, floods in South Asia, and the recent earthquake in Mexico. They all contributed to very dangerous situations for local residents. While there is nothing worse than a family trying to contact loved ones in times like these, we at Life360 try to be a useful tool to help with communication, connection and peace of mind. Here are some ways you can use Life360 to help before, during and after the next emergency.

1. Check in: If you ever need to give a status update to your family, simply tap “Check in” and you share your location with your family, letting them know that you’re safe and sound.

2. Help alert: Incase of an immediate emergency, send a “Help Alert” and we’ll notify your emergency contact list with your location via email, in-app notification, text and a phone call. Often during these times phone lines may get jammed as families try to contact one another, but Life360 uses such a small amount of data that your location and safety status gets through to our system so we can keep sending out your info until everyone in your family gets it. Make sure you’re prepared by setting up your emergency contact list now.

3. Monitor battery life: In addition to location, Life360 also lists the battery life of users and notifies circle members. When your phone goes into low-power mode, it turns off certain GPS functionalities that degrade location accuracy. Stay charged!

4. Increase location accuracy by keeping your Wi-Fi on: Turning on WiFi on your device dramatically improves location accuracy, even if you are not actively connected to a WiFi network. Your device uses the WiFi sensor to detect nearby WiFi  base stations and narrow your exact location based on that information.  With WiFi on, your device can quickly locate you within the bounds of a building, but with WiFi off your location accuracy can be off by more than a mile, as your device needs to rely on less precise location inputs (e.g., the location of cell phone towers).

The number of people in Texas who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey this week is overwhelming, and our team’s thoughts are with all of the affected families.

After seeing the destruction the storm has caused, our team immediately began discussing “how can we help?” Thousands of families in the greater Houston area regularly use Life360. Our app can help them communicate with each other during natural disasters and keep track of loved ones’ whereabouts.

For our users who have been in the area affected by Hurricane Harvey over the past several days, we have upgraded your basic Life360 account to Life360 PLUS through September 30 for free. This upgrade has already been applied to the accounts of more than 200,000 of our users in the area affected by the storm. We hope the 30 days of family Location History, unlimited Places Alerts that send you an automatic notification when loved ones arrive or depart a designated area on the map, and 24/7 customer service from our team are helpful to you and your loved ones. Accounts that have been upgraded for free will automatically revert on October 1 to the basic Life360 service you had before the storm.

Life360 has also made a donation to the American Red Cross to help fund relief efforts, and we hope others in our community will consider making a donation, too.

Many of our users may not know that the idea for Life360 arose following Hurricane Katrina. After watching countless stories of families who could not find their loved ones, we were determined to build an app that could keep families connected and aware of their loved ones’ locations even when cell phone towers are down. Our thoughts are with all families in the areas affected by this storm.

It’s almost that time of year, when kids go back to school, new teen drivers hit the streets and college students start packing for their new dorms. As parents, we’re equally relieved, excited and anxious that our kids are starting the new school year! In fact, we find that it’s one of the most active times of the year for families using Life360. Families add “Places” such as school as much as 50% more. From family location features to drive monitoring, many families use Life360 to make life a little easier, with the peace of mind knowing that their children are safe during the school year.

This time of year introduces new challenges and safety concerns, but with a little bit of education, you and your family can be better prepared. Whether it’s walking, driving, or taking a bus, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 safety tips for traveling to school for a safer experience.

For Families

1. Get Life360 in Your Life: Life360 offers a great way to make sure that you know your kids get to school and arrive home safely! Watch them in real time when they’re traveling and follow their route, or get automatic notifications pushed to your phone for daily peace of mind. With Driver Protect, you can get a report on your teen driver’s speed, braking, and instances of cell phone use while driving. For further safety measures, Driver Protect offers roadside assistance and crash detection in case of emergencies.

“My kids enjoy more freedom and they appreciate the fact that I’m not constantly bugging them about their whereabouts. I can tell where they are and see when they are on their way home. They can take their time driving even after curfew because I can see them making progress on their route (so I’m more understanding). I can also discreetly check that they made the drive safely to school each morning even though our local roads are often snow-covered and slippery and riddled with deer.” – Wendy L.

2. Know Where to Be Picked Up: If you plan on picking up your child, make sure to set a regular place for pickup that is both easily accessible for a car and is a safe place for your kids to wait, in case you are late. Highly trafficked areas are not ideal (or safe).

3. Have a Pre-established Route: If walking to school, have a pre-established daily route that you both agree upon. They should not deviate from that route or take any shortcuts which can be unfamiliar to them and not vetted by you. Doing so should help mitigate any dangers or risks.

4. Walk with Friends! If at all possible, walking with a friend or a group is always safer than walking by yourself.

5. Don’t Rush to the Bus: If your child is taking the bus, make sure they arrive early so they don’t feel tempted to rush or cut any corners—like running across the street—while trying to catch it.

6. Obey the Proper Crossing Rules: Make sure your child obeys the rules of the road: it’s important to use the marked crosswalks at traffic signals, wait for the pedestrian walking signs, always be mindful of your surroundings and watch for oncoming cars. Do not use phones, play games or listen to headphones too loudly as they can be major distractions while in highly trafficked areas—especially when crossing the street.

“This app made parent-teen relationships so much better at our house! The kids don’t have to remember to text me. I hear the notifications when they leave school, practice, etc. I don’t even have to stop what I am doing, I just hear it and know they are on schedule. Even if they make mistakes like staying out too late, I can see for myself that they are safe (just late)… no freak-out late-night arguments. I haven’t obsessed about following my family’s every move because using the driving history a couple times showed me they really are doing well on the road. To me this app is a good example of life-improving use of technology!” – Laura R.

For Teen Drivers

7. Make sure your teen doesn’t distract themselves with their phone while driving. Texting while driving and taking your eyes off the road could result in a serious accident. Don’t change the music on your phone, don’t take a call, don’t text, it can be dangerous—and illegal. With Safe Drive Reviews in Driver Protect, we let you know what occurred during each drive with instant, detailed reviews. Information about the drive including alerts for Phone Usage, Rapid Acceleration, Hard Braking, and the Top Speed are shown on the map at the time of occurrence. As much as 58% of Driver Protect users have reported reduced phone useage while driving!

8. Don’t Have a Party in Your Car: Blasting the latest Taylor Swift song can be fun, but a car full of screaming, bouncing teens is no joke. Make sure everyone is in their seat, buckled up, with the music at a reasonable volume. Leave the karaoke to sleepovers!

9. Drive to School Early: Driving while late to class is an easy excuse for speeding. Don’t rush. Accidents increase and defensive driving goes out the window when teen drivers speed to get to class on time. You can help your teens be better drivers by turning on Drive Detection in Life360. Doing so will enable both of you to see the top speed reached during each drive, which can help to reduce and dissuade bad habits.

10. Slow Down for School Zones: Speed limits are reduced in school zones for a reason. With so many children crossing the street, it’s recommended that you do not pass vehicles, especially school buses. It’s better to be safe and slow than sorry (as well as avoiding any chance of getting a ticket)!

“Great for families! For a family with multiple kids and multiple adults responsible for dropping off and/or picking up the kids from school, this app makes it easy for making sure everyone is in-the-know of where people are in relation to getting the kids. We have set up zones at the school, the bus stop and various homes for the adults. We now know for sure when people are making the pick up or drop off on time. This also makes it easy for family functions, as we can call people and give them directions based on where they are.” – Tremaine K.

Is your family beginning the school year soon? Add “school” as a place today and get notified when your kids arrive and leave! Want to hear more tips, stories and articles from Life360? Join our community on our Facebook page. Have a great school year and stay safe! – Life360