Emergency Location Sharing — Without Tracking
Emergency location sharing means your trusted contacts can see where you are when something goes wrong — so help reaches the right place. Still OK does this without tracking you. There is no live tracking and no location history. Your location is captured quietly when you check in, kept on your device and on EU servers, and only ever shared with your contacts in one situation: when you miss a check-in and an alert fires — and only if you turned location on. The rest of the time, no one sees where you are. GPS location sharing is part of Premium; the check-in safety net itself is free.
Location in an emergency — not the other 23 hours
Most apps that share your location do it continuously. A map shows your dot moving in real time, and the people you shared with can open it whenever they like. That is useful for coordinating a family, but it is surveillance by another name: someone always knows where you are.
Still OK is built the opposite way. It is a safety net, not a tracker. Your location is only relevant in the one moment you can’t speak for yourself — so that’s the only moment it is shared. No live tracking, no location history: Still OK does not keep a trail of where you’ve been, and your contacts cannot pull up your position on a whim. They only ever receive a single location, attached to an alert, when you didn’t check in.
Concretely: each time you check in, the app records your current location as your last known position. It stays private. If you then miss your next check-in and the alert goes out, that last known location is included in the message to your contacts — so they know where to send help. If you never miss a check-in, that location is never shared with anyone.
Live tracking vs. Still OK’s emergency location
| emLoc_t_dim | Live tracking (Find My, Life360) | Still OK emergency location |
|---|---|---|
| When is it captured? | Continuously, around the clock | Quietly at each check-in |
| Who can see it? | Anyone you shared with, anytime | Your contacts, only when an alert fires |
| Location history? | Yes — a trail of where you’ve been | No — only your last known position |
| Can you switch it off? | Usually, but it’s on by default | Yes — off by default, opt-in, reversible anytime |
| Where is the data stored? | Often US-based servers | EU servers, GDPR-compliant |
The difference is not a setting — it’s the whole design. Live-tracking apps assume someone should always be able to find you. Still OK assumes the opposite: your location is yours, until the silence of a missed check-in makes it the one thing that could save you time.
What this means for your privacy
- Location sharing is off by default. You turn it on yourself, and you can turn it off again at any time.
- No continuous GPS access: your position is only read at the moment you check in, not in the background all day.
- No location history is kept — only your most recent position is stored, and it’s overwritten at your next check-in.
- Your data lives on EU servers and is handled under GDPR. Still OK is ad-free and sells nothing about you.
- Your contacts can never “open a map” to look you up. They only receive a location when an alert is actually sent.
When a location is the difference
Felix, 38, lives alone in Innsbruck and hikes solo most weekends. One Sunday he sets out on a quiet trail above the valley, slips on loose rock, and twists his ankle badly enough that he can’t walk out — and there’s no signal where he lands to make a call. Before the hike he’d checked in from the trailhead, so Still OK already had his last known location. His check-in is due by 8 PM. It passes without a tap. The alert goes to his sister in Salzburg, with the trailhead location attached. She doesn’t have to guess which of a dozen trails he took — she hands mountain rescue a real starting point. They reach him before nightfall.
The rest of the time, no one was watching Felix’s dot move across a map. His sister never tracked him. The location only ever surfaced in the one moment it mattered — which is exactly the point of a safety net instead of surveillance.
Turn on emergency location sharing in 3 steps
- Download Still OK, add a trusted person as your emergency contact, and set your check-in interval.
- Turn on Premium and enable location sharing, then grant the location permission your phone asks for.
- Done. From now on your location is recorded quietly at each check-in — and only shared with your contacts if an alert fires.
Frequently asked questions
Does Still OK track my location?
No. Still OK does not track you. There is no live tracking and no location history. Your position is only read at the moment you check in, and it is only shared — with the contacts you chose — when you miss a check-in and an alert fires. Between check-ins, no one, including Still OK, follows where you are. It’s a safety net, not a tracker.
Who can see my location?
Only the emergency contacts you added, and only when an alert is actually sent because you missed a check-in. There is no map your contacts can open to look you up whenever they want. Outside of an alert, your location is not visible to anyone.
Is my location history stored?
No. Still OK keeps only your most recent location — your last known position from your latest check-in — and overwrites it at the next one. There is no trail of where you’ve been, no movement log, and nothing is built into a profile. Your data is stored on EU servers under GDPR.
Can I turn location sharing off?
Yes, at any time. Location sharing is off by default — you decide whether to enable it, and you can switch it back off whenever you like. When it’s off, your check-in safety net still works exactly the same; your contacts are simply alerted without a location.
How is this different from sharing my location in Find My or Life360?
Those apps share your location continuously: a live map shows where you are, and the people you shared with can check it anytime. Still OK does the opposite — it shares a single location, only when an alert fires, with no live map and no history. It answers “where is Felix right now that something is wrong?” rather than “where is Felix at all times?”.
Does emergency location sharing cost extra?
GPS location in alerts is part of Still OK Premium (€4.99/month or €34.99/year), together with WhatsApp and SMS notifications. The free version sends the alert to your contact by email without a location. There’s no separate per-use charge for location — it’s included in Premium.