will 'find my friend' work on cruise ship?

[lucymorgan]

Given recent events in Europe, dd is a bit anxious about us going on our upcoming trip. She is not coming with us.

 

I am wondering if the 'find my friend' app would work on a cruise ship if we have airplane mode on, wifi on and unlimited 'voom' internet access on one of our phones so she would know 'exactly' where we are at any given time.

 

Thanks for any info/ experience.

[AdoraBelle]

Probably much easier to have her use one of the cruise ship tracking sites.

 

I don't know the answer to your actual question, but I seem to recall that when I'm on NCL ships, my IP address/location shows up as being in Miami when I'm strictly on their wifi. I'd be interested to know how Find Friends behaves on RCI's superior internet system. But I think you should ALSO show her how to find and use ship tracker sites/apps and port cams.

[lucymorgan]

Probably much easier to have her use one of the cruise ship tracking sites.

 

I don't know the answer to your actual question, but I seem to recall that when I'm on NCL ships, my IP address/location shows up as being in Miami when I'm strictly on their wifi. I'd be interested to know how Find Friends behaves on RCI's superior internet system. But I think you should ALSO show her how to find and use ship tracker sites/apps and port cams.

 

Thanks Adorabelle. We are also flying and doing land based travel. Great suggestion :)

[DonnaK]

For us, it didn't work when we were "at sea" (it said "location not available"), but it did work when we were connected to wi-fi in ports.

Edited July 18, 2016 by DonnaK

[lucymorgan]

For us, it didn't work when we were "at sea" (it said "location not available", but it did work when we were connected to wi-fi in ports.

 

Thanks DonnaK It seems like a combination of find my friend and sea scanner or similar will be useful. I don't think she will actually want to use it much but having the option is what is important. :)

[reallyitsmema]

Thanks DonnaK It seems like a combination of find my friend and sea scanner or similar will be useful. I don't think she will actually want to use it much but having the option is what is important. :)

 

Make sure you use an actual ship tracking site. The one you list is a travel agent and lists where the ship should be, based on itinerary. It doesn't show the actual location. This site will give you the last reported location, if the ship is within range.

 

http://www.marinetraffic.com

[sky0000547]

This is interesting as Find My Friends uses the GPS locator in your phone to locate where you are and using data/wifi to send your location.

 

I will assume the phone can pick up GPS signal whilst at sea and there is a wifi connection on the ship then it should work but somehow it doesn't.

 

You can always use Marine Traffic online or app to track ship locations.

[lucymorgan]

Make sure you use an actual ship tracking site. The one you list is a travel agent and lists where the ship should be, based on itinerary. It doesn't show the actual location. This site will give you the last reported location, if the ship is within range.

 

http://www.marinetraffic.com

 

Thank you - I'll suggest that site :)

 

This is interesting as Find My Friends uses the GPS locator in your phone to locate where you are and using data/wifi to send your location.

 

I will assume the phone can pick up GPS signal whilst at sea and there is a wifi connection on the ship then it should work but somehow it doesn't.

 

You can always use Marine Traffic online or app to track ship locations.

 

That is interesting. I wonder why gps + internet doesn't work :(

[eldolko]

Given recent events in Europe, dd is a bit anxious about us going on our upcoming trip. She is not coming with us.

 

I am wondering if the 'find my friend' app would work on a cruise ship if we have airplane mode on, wifi on and unlimited 'voom' internet access on one of our phones so she would know 'exactly' where we are at any given time.

 

Thanks for any info/ experience.

 

The 'find my friend´app requires at GPS signal to determine your location. The phone then use data connection to send that information to the servers. It doesn't matter if the data transfers through your phone carriers mobile data service or a wi-fi connection of your choice. The information needs to be sent from your phone.

 

If you put your phone i airplane mode it will shut down the gps functionality. Even if you turn wi-fi back on the phone won't be able to pick up a gps signal since those antennas are disabled.

 

You could go to your settings and simply disable mobile data and not activate airplane mode. This way you can be sure your phone won't try to send data through the ships expensive cellular at sea service. You will only have an internet connection when you have an active and functional wi-wi connection. This will allow your phone to always have the gps available.

 

The 'find my friends' app should work at sea as long as your phone picks up a gps signal and you have an active internet connection through wi-fi.

 

My experience is that you won't always have a gps connection while at sea. I have used gps loggers mounted on the balcony to tag all my photos with a correct geo data. Out on the open waters I have often lost my connection to the gps satellites. You probably will lose your gps signal while inside the ship. But it can't hurt to try.

[eldolko]

I will assume the phone can pick up GPS signal whilst at sea and there is a wifi connection on the ship then it should work but somehow it doesn't..

 

That't interesting. Are you sure your phone had the gps available and not put the phone in airplane mode?

 

I have not used Find my friends while at sea. But I have used other gps based services with no trouble at all, as long as I have had an active gps signal.

[lucymorgan]

The 'find my friend´app requires at GPS signal to determine your location. The phone then use data connection to send that information to the servers. It doesn't matter if the data transfers through your phone carriers mobile data service or a wi-fi connection of your choice. The information needs to be sent from your phone.

 

If you put your phone i airplane mode it will shut down the gps functionality. Even if you turn wi-fi back on the phone won't be able to pick up a gps signal since those antennas are disabled.

 

You could go to your settings and simply disable mobile data and not activate airplane mode. This way you can be sure your phone won't try to send data through the ships expensive cellular at sea service. You will only have an internet connection when you have an active and functional wi-wi connection. This will allow your phone to always have the gps available.

 

The 'find my friends' app should work at sea as long as your phone picks up a gps signal and you have an active internet connection through wi-fi.

 

My experience is that you won't always have a gps connection while at sea. I have used gps loggers mounted on the balcony to tag all my photos with a correct geo data. Out on the open waters I have often lost my connection to the gps satellites. You probably will lose your gps signal while inside the ship. But it can't hurt to try.

 

Thank you Eldolko! That is very useful information!

 

PS I am not surprised that someone from wonderful seafaring Sweden has this insight!

[Geeocacher]

Haven't tried this yet, but I did a search and found another workaround.

 

Go to Airplane Mode

Turn back on WiFi

Open the Compass app

 

Evidently opening the Compass app (with WiFi turned back on) re-enables the gps radios. It appears to work, the compass app is showing my coordinates, but haven't tested it with Find my Friends yet. Will try tonight at work when I have some people to test with and see what happens.

[lucymorgan]

Haven't tried this yet, but I did a search and found another workaround.

 

Go to Airplane Mode

Turn back on WiFi

Open the Compass app

 

Evidently opening the Compass app (with WiFi turned back on) re-enables the gps radios. It appears to work, the compass app is showing my coordinates, but haven't tested it with Find my Friends yet. Will try tonight at work when I have some people to test with and see what happens.

 

Thank you Geeocacher :)

Edited July 19, 2016 by lucymorgan

[Geeocacher]

Just tested with those steps and it worked perfectly.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[lucymorgan]

Just tested with those steps and it worked perfectly.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Great :) Thank you

[eldolko]

Evidently opening the Compass app (with WiFi turned back on) re-enables the gps radios. It appears to work, the compass app is showing my coordinates, but haven't tested it with Find my Friends yet. Will try tonight at work when I have some people to test with and see what happens.

 

I did a little research my self and although I'm getting mixed signals it seems to be true after iOS 8.2. GPS is a passive service, meaning your phone does nothing else but receives a signal from the satellites. No signals are leaving your phone back to the satellites.

 

The phone basically uses three ways to determine your location:

GPS: Passive, receive only, signal from satellites. Very accurate once connected to several satellites.

 

Cellular towers: Triangulates your position from the known positions of the towers. Depending on how many towers your phone communicates with this may be sort of accurate or wrong by a couple of miles .

 

Wi-Fi: Apple has collected anonymous data for the location of a couple of million routers. If connected to a wi-fi router with a known position your phone will pinpoint you to that location.

 

Since the phones GPS is marketed as A-GPS, meaning assisted GPS, it will first try to locate you by wi-fi and cellular towers. This will tell the phone where in the world it's located by a accuracy of a couple of miles down to a couple of yards. It will then know which satellites to communicate with to get the most accurate position possible.

 

Pure GPS is usually kind of slow to get started, since the device has to search the skies for all available satellites. A-GPS is a way to speed things up by placing you kind of right in the world before asking just the right satellites for the exact location. The device won't try to ask satellites on the other side of the earth for your location if it already knows your estimated location.

 

I'm not sure this sorted anything out for you. But it tells a story of how many ways your phone will try to pinpoint your location.

 

And, as far as I can tell, the GPS will work even with airplane mode activated.

Edited July 19, 2016 by eldolko