Friend Tracker puts your friends on a compass radar. Everyone gets their own color and an arrow pointing to where they are — with distance and walking time. No map to decipher: turn, look, walk.
How it works
Set it up once before the festival starts. At the festival itself, all you have to do is raise your phone.
Share your friend code or invite friends by email. As soon as they accept your request, you’re connected.
Name, dates, place. Invite your friends: everyone who joins shows up on the radar during the event.
On the radar, a colored arrow points to each friend. Tap a name for distance and walking time.
Features
A map makes you work out where you are first. Friend Tracker skips that step and simply points the way.
Turn your phone and all the arrows turn with it. At a glance you see who’s close by and who’s on the other side of the site.
Tap a friend: one big arrow, the distance in meters and roughly how long the walk is.
Within about 25 meters of each other, the app shows “Nearby” instead of an arrow jumping all over the place. Look around, or send a quick ping.
One button and everyone in your event gets your message and your location. Their phones keep ringing for up to 2 minutes, or until they respond.
One tap and your friend knows you’re on your way to them. No shouting into your phone over the bass.
Invite your friends; everyone who taps “Join” sees the others on the radar — and nobody else. After the weekend, the event moves to “Past” by itself.
Add friends with their friend code or email address. They get a friend request, and only once they accept are you connected.
Optional: turn on “Background sharing” and your friends can find you even when the app is closed. Only while your event is running, and it stops by itself after the event.
The same color on the radar, in the list and while searching. No reading names in the dark.
Privacy
Knowing where your friends are is handy. Knowing nobody else can see it matters just as much.
Read the privacy policyYour location is only visible to people in an event you’ve joined yourself. Not to your other friends, not to strangers.
Outside the event days, you share nothing. And you only share with the other participants once you tap “Join” yourself.
Location history is automatically deleted after 7 days. We never sell data.
Screens
Real screens from the app — on iPhone and on Android, each following the platform’s own style.
Download
Free. You can install the Android beta today; the iPhone version is coming to the App Store.
Android 8.0 or later · iOS 17 or later
It’s a beta, so there may still be a few small bugs. You install an update the same way — download the new APK and install it over the previous one; your data is kept.
To exchange positions you need a data connection — mobile data is enough, no Wi-Fi needed. If the network drops out at the festival for a moment, the arrow keeps pointing to your friend’s last known position, and you can see how old it is (“4 min ago”). Your compass and your own GPS keep working offline.
By default, Friend Tracker only uses GPS and the compass while the app is open, so a quick look at where your friends are costs very little. If you turn on “Background sharing”, the app sends your position about once a minute during the event, even with your phone in your pocket. That uses a bit more battery, and it stops by itself after the event. Out for the whole day? Bring a power bank, as always.
Only the other participants in an event you’ve joined yourself. Not your other friends, not people who are only invited, not everyone with the app. Your location is only shared on the days of that event. Location history is automatically deleted after 7 days.
No. Friend Tracker is free. You only need an account to add friends and create events.
iPhones running iOS 17 or later, and Android devices running Android 8.0 or later. The app also works without Google Play services (e.g. some Huawei devices), but without push notifications. For the rotating radar your phone needs a compass; without one, the arrows point relative to north.
Go to Friends → Add friend and enter your friend’s code (like FT-4K9Q-X2MZ) or their email address. Your friend gets a friend request, and you’re only connected once they accept it. If they don’t have the app yet, they get one invitation email; if they create an account with that email address, your request will be waiting for them. After that, you can invite them to an event.
No. Nobody becomes your friend or event member unless you accept yourself, and an invitation to an event doesn’t share any location yet. Shared your friend code with too many people? Request a new code under Friends; the old one stops working straight away.
With Alert, you warn all participants in your current event at once, with a short message and — if you like — your location. Their phones keep ringing for up to 2 minutes, or until they respond with “On my way” or “Got it”. Getting too many alerts from someone? You can mute that friend. Friend Tracker is not an emergency service: in an emergency, call 112.
Install the app, swap codes and create your event. Five minutes’ work — then you’ll find each other again.