“Did you forget to call your mom?
“Where’s your brother?”
“When’s Dad getting home?”
Only one app holds the answers to all these questions: Life360, a free app for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry that uses your phone’s GPS to help families stay in sync throughout the day.
Basic features – like group text messages and a map of your family members’ current locations – are just the tip of the iceberg. Life360 can send you automatic notifications when your kids arrive at school or your wife leaves work. It can also launch turn-by-turn directions to someone’s location with the press of a button.
To be filed under Better Safe than Sorry, the app has a map layer displaying police activity, listed sex offenders, and important locations like hospitals and police stations. And while you’ll hopefully never need it, there’s a one-button panic alert to email, call, and text the entire family in case of an emergency.
No harm in being prepared.