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Q: I invited someone to join my friend network, but they are not showing up in my friends list. What is going on?

A: In order to protect our members privacy, we require that invitations be accepted before appearing in your friends list. Once your friend has accepted your invitation, you will have to synchronize your phone to pull down their information into your friends list. To do this press the menu button on the phone from the main LifeAware screen and tap “Synchronize”. Ensure that Friends and Groups is checked and tap go. If your friend has accepted your invite they should appear in your list.

Note: To accept invitations sent to you, login to the LifeAware website at http://www.lifeaware.net and select “Friends who can locate me” from the menu. You should see all invitations sent to you under the “Requests to be your friend” heading. Click “Confirm” to be added to the indivduals friend list and allow them to locate you, or click Deny to not allow them to locate you. If you do not know the person requesting to locate you, you should deny their request. If unwanted requests persist, please report the issue to [email protected].

Q: Can your program be used to locate anyone with a cell phone, or just people running an Android based phone?

A: Currently, LifeAware is only supported on Android based devices, which today only consists of the G1. We understand the limitations and are looking forward to future Android based devices that will provide consumers options in phone selection. Please see our supported phones page for the most recent list.

Q: Is there a trial period? What does the service cost?

A: While we are still working out the details, our goal is to make it as affordable for individuals as possible and hope to always maintain a free version of the product. We are considering both free with advertising as well as pay models.

For now, we encourage you to download and use a full featured copy of the software at no cost to you. We will not collect any payment or ask for a credit card at this time.

Q: How do I download the software to my phone?

A: LifeAware is currently only available from the offical Android Market accessible directly from your Android phone. We are listed under Applications | LifeStyle.

Q: The LifeAware application on the phone is not working. It cannot find my location. Or it is not showing my location very accurately. I am in the neighborhood, but not where I actually am.

A: A couple of things may be in play. Your location provider may be disabled on your phone. Go into the phones settings under “Security & Location” and make sure either “Use wireless networks” or “Enable GPS satellites” are checked. If they are enabled go into the LifeAware settings, under “Location Provider Options” and ensure that at least one of the options is checked. If network provider is enabled, you should be getting your location. Network locations are not as accurate as GPS locations, so it may not show you exactly where you are but should be close. For GPS, it requires a direct line of site to the sky, so if you are indoors, it may not be able to retrieve your location.

The GPS can take several minutes to pinpoint your location. If you want to track an Android phone in Real-Time, you can use these apps. LifeAware works on the principle of “Best Available Information”. If the GPS location is not available, LifeAware utilizes the network location information which is not as accurate as the GPS.

Q: I setup a zone, but it never seems to trigger alerts.

A: There are several factors that can affect if zones get triggered. Captured locations are compared to the zones to determine if it falls within or outside of the zone. GPS requires direct view of the sky, so when indoors it is likely that your network location is used. This is returned as a point and an accuracy (which is represented by the blue circle surrounding the pin.) Usually, your true location will be within the circle, however the service uses the actual pin location to determine if you are in or outside of it. This should be within a few blocks of your actual location.

Increasing the size of the zone can often resolve the issue, but is still reliant on how accurate of a location we can obtain from your phone

Q: How will LifeAware affect my phones battery?

A: LifeAware uses the location providers on your phone to locate you current position on specified intervals. You can control which providers are used by accessing the application settings, and then “Location Provider Options”. From there you can specify whether to use GPS, Network, or both. Using GPS will use considerable more battery power but will provide more accurate locations.

You can also adjust the frequency in which your location is captured. In the application settings, access “Broadcasting Options”. From there you can change the “Update my location every” setting. You can set the value anywhere from 5 minutes to 60 minutes. The default is 15 minutes, and it is not recommended you set the value below this for extended periods of time.