Radar 5.5 Release
Summary
Location sharing. If you have a Nomad van with Tracking switched on, you can now send somebody a link that shows where the vehicle is, right now, on a map. They do not need a Sensa account. It is free, it lasts as long as you say, and you can stop it from your phone.
Let someone see where you are
This is the safety feature people ask for first: if something goes wrong, a friend or a relative can find you.
You create a link in the mySensa portal, on the Tracking tab, with Share my location. You choose who it is for, how long it should last (one hour, eight hours, 24 hours, or until you turn it off), and how precise it should be (exact, about 1 km, or about 10 km). Exact is the usual answer, because the point is that somebody can find you. The rougher settings are for "the family can see roughly where we are" without giving away the doorstep.
You get back a link and a 6-digit code. Send link hands the link to your phone's usual sharing options, and Copy code copies the code.
Send the link and the code separately. One message with both in it is everything anyone needs to watch the vehicle, and forwarding it passes on the lot. Two different routes is what makes the code worth having.
The code is shown once. We store it scrambled, so nobody at Sensa can read it back to you either. If you lose it, stop the link and make another, which takes seconds.
What the other person sees
They open the link on any phone or computer, type the code, and get a map with the vehicle on it and a line saying how recently it reported: "Updated just now", "Updated 4 minutes ago". If you chose a rougher setting it says so.
They are not asked to make an account, and they see nothing else about you. No journeys, no history, no saved places, just where the vehicle is.
While somebody is watching, the van reports its position more often than usual, so the map keeps up as you drive.
When there is nothing live to show, the page says which rather than looking broken. Out of signal, it shows the last known position and how old it is, because where you were three hours ago is the most useful thing anyone has in an emergency. Tracking switched off, or the link stopped or expired, and it says so.
Stopping, and knowing whether a link has spread
Your live links are listed on the Tracking tab, each with a Stop button. Stopping takes effect on the other person's screen within about half a minute, wherever they are and whether or not they still have the page open.
Each link shows how many times it has been opened and when it was last opened. That is the signal that tells you a link has travelled further than you meant it to. We count the openings, and we record nothing about the people doing the opening.
Turning the Tracking switch off in the van stops every share as well, which is the off switch to reach for in the vehicle: no phone, no typing. It pauses rather than cancels, though, so a link that has not expired starts working again if you turn Tracking back on. Use Stop if you want one finished with.
If somebody gets the code wrong five times, the link locks for 15 minutes.
Where the van is now, in mySensa
Separately from sharing, your own mySensa home page and your vehicle's page now show a small map of where the van last reported, with the age of that position if it has been quiet for a while.
It is drawn only while Tracking is switched on. A map is a claim about right now, and a van whose owner switched Tracking off an hour ago and then drove two hundred miles would be shown confidently in the wrong county. Your journeys stay on the list either way, because a dated journey makes no such claim.
Free, and it needs Tracking on
Location sharing is free, like Tracking itself. It is not a Premium feature and it is not gated on a support plan, because it is a safety control.
It works only while Tracking is on, and Tracking is off until you turn it on. If your van has never recorded a position there is nothing to share yet: turn Tracking on, let it report once, and try again.
As with Tracking, sharing covers the vehicle, so it covers everyone travelling in it. Say so before you send a link.
Still to come
Sharing a past journey with someone is still not possible. This is about where you are, not where you have been.
Route planning still covers Great Britain only, on both plans. Places in Germany or Norway do not mean directions there.
Offline map packs remain a planned Premium feature and will arrive with the native mobile app. They are not available yet on any platform.