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Features

TheseBoots combines the benefits of tracking your own locations as well as the locations of others. You will be able to look up your location history easily. And you will be alerted when entering or leaving a designated area. TheseBoots enables you to see the real-time locations of your friends and your family. You can define areas for receiving notifications when a tracked person enters or leaves an area. You can also define so called spots and then query for your presence around such locations.
So, TheseBoots helps to set your mind at ease viewing that your children are at school, your spouse is in their office, or your parents are at home or on their way home.

TheseBoots is a free app without advertisements!

TheseBoots does not use unsolicited push messages. Instead, it applies responses to your recorded locations, or polls the last status only when the app is in foreground.

You can login on another device when you have lost your phone or when it has been stolen.

At registration several data will be asked from you:

  1. An email address is needed for sending your nickname or password. This might be needed if you login again and forgot one of them.
    Your email address can not be changed afterwards!
  2. A nickname must be a unique and is used to identify yourself. The nickname is important if you want to track other people or if you wish to be tracked. Exchanging your nickname to other users can be done by mail, whatsapp or personal communication, but not by this app.
    Your nickname can not be changed afterwards; it is recommended not to use your real name as nickname.
  3. A password is needed to login again to your account on the same device or on another device. An encrypted version of your password is stored in the database on the server.
  4. Your locations are stored on your device. You can choose to store them also in the database on the server. The choice can be made via the Settings screen. Locations sent to the server will be stored encrypted with the so called ‘security text’. This security text remains on your device. Therefore, it is not possible for any person (including the database managers and the app developers) to decrypt your locations. If you login again you must enter exactly the same security text as before. A hashed value of the security text on the server is used to check this. Note, that it is impossible to reconstruct the security text from that hashed value. Please, take measures to remember your security text. In fact it acts as a password. If you forget your security text, then you are only able to delete your account.

The TheseBoots Live screen focuses on your own locations. Its features are:

  Start recording your location.
  Stop recording your location.
  Locations inside the designated area of the current window will not be stored (to save space).
A dialog asks for the area name and the type of coordinates (GPS and/or network).
  A notification is raised when you enter or leave the designated area of the current window.
A dialog asks for the area name and the type of coordinates (GPS and/or network).
  A tap of a position marks the closest location and shows its corresponding date and time.
In order to distinguish between the type of locations a GPS location is shown as e.g.,  me @ 28 nov. 10:36:12, whereas a network location is shown as e.g.,  me # 28 nov. 10:36:12 .
  An area marker is (partly) green when entering the area, and (partly) red when leaving the area.
  A tap of an area marker shows the area name; a second tap displays a dialog asking for deleting the area.
  A long tap of a position allows the creation of a spot, indicated by a boot marker; a tap on a boot marker shows the spot name and category; a second tap displays the dialog of the spot list.

The TheseBoots Track screen focuses on tracking persons.

  The Track Dashboard shows the possible tracking interactions.

  • Invite another person (with known nickname) to be tracked by you
  • Cancel an invitation for tracking
  • List of tracked persons
  • Stop tracking a person
  • Answer a track invitation to you
  • List of persons who are tracking you
  • Stop being tracked by some person
  A notification is raised when a tracked person enters or leaves the designated area of the current window.
A dialog asks for the area name, the nickname of the tracked person, and the type of coordinates (GPS and/or network).

The TheseBoots History screen focuses on locations in the past.

  Show a subset of locations available in the local storage of your device.
A dialog asks for the person who recorded the locations, either you or a tracked person; it also asks for the time interval, and the type of coordinates (GPS and/or network).
  Present four possible Storage Actions about locations.

  • The Purge action removes locations from local storage on your device. Note that removed locations of yourself can be restored. However, removed locations of tracked persons cannot be restored.
  • The Fetch action retrieves your locations from the server, and adds them to local storage on your device. In this way, your locations are restored.
  • The Delete action deletes your locations permanently from the server. Note that this action cannot be undone! No locations are removed from local storage.
  • The Export action stores your locations in a file on your device! The file is in directory ..\Android\data\nl.tistis.thesebots3\files\Documents\locations .

For each of the above 4 actions a dialog asks for the time interval, and the type of coordinates (GPS and/or network).

Note that for a normal account the locations will be retained more than 60 days on the server.

The TheseBoots Spots screen focuses on spots. A spot is identified by a name and a category.

  In the Spot list dialog a query can be started for your presence around the selected spot.
The Query spot dialog asks for the square box size around the spot, the time interval, and the type of coordinates (GPS and/or network).
In the results dialog all the presence occurrences are shown with date, time and duration.
  The selected spot can be deleted.
  Show coordinates of the spot.

The TheseBoots Log screen lists several important events.

The TheseBoots Subscription screen enables you to subscribe to a Premium Account. The fee of a Premium Account is € 0.80 per month. The advantages of a Premium Account are:

  • Unlimited number of persons to be tracked
  • Quick location updates, after 5 seconds and after 5 meters
  • Full location history

For a normal account only 1 person can be tracked; locations are updated after at least 60 seconds and after at least 25 meters; the locations will stay on the server at least 60 days.

Note that the fee is excluding taxes, because taxes are country dependent. For some countries no taxes are charged, but beware that in other countries taxes can be up to 25% or even more!

The TheseBoots Profile screen shows your nickname and your Profile Image. The boots are displayed as long as the image has not been changed. Your image is drawn at your latest location in the maps.
You can sign out and login with an alternative account. When you sign out, then all your tracking of other persons is stopped. On the other hand, when you login again then other people tracking you resumes.
Furthermore,  you can delete your account. The password is then asked for confirmation. As a result all your account data will be removed from the server and from your device.

The TheseBoots Settings screen allows changing the following settings:

✓ Type of coordinates:

  • GPS coordinates
  • Network coordinates
  • GPS & Network coordinates

When choosing GPS & Network coordinates you will see 2 tracks with different colors, one for the GPS coordinates, and one for the Network coordinates.

✓ Sending locations:

  • Send always to server
  • Send with wifi
  • Never send to server
  • Postpone send

In case of Send always data will normally be sent via a mobile network. In case of Send with wifi data are only sent via a wifi network. When choosing Postpone send data transfer is postponed until one of the first 2 options are selected. Note that in the latter case no real-time locations are forwarded to your peers.

✓ Minimum time interval between locations:
Subsequent locations are recorded after the entered minimum time interval. For a normal account the interval must be at least 60 seconds, whereas for a premium account the interval must be at least 5 seconds.

✓ Minimum distance between locations:
Subsequent locations are recorded after having the entered minimum distance. For a normal account the distance must be at least 25 meters, whereas for a premium account the distance must be at least 5 meters. Note that a location is recorded after satisfying both the time interval condition as well as the distance condition. Discarded locations in locked areas cause even bigger gaps between recorded locations.

✓ Period between polling locations:
The server is polled with the entered interval for location updates of tracked persons. This figure is important when you want to view locations of tracked person in the Track screen, but you are not recording your own locations. For a normal account the interval must be at least 60 seconds, whereas for a premium account the interval must be at least 10 seconds.

✓ Length of visible track:
The number of locations of a tracked person that are visible in the Track screen must be between 2 and 100; the default number is 10.

✓ Duration own track:
This duration limits the number of locations shown in the Live screen; the default duration is 48 hours.

✓ Sending areas for backup on server:

  • Send always to server
  • Send with wifi
  • Never send to server
  • Postpone send

The areas on the server are restored when you login (on the same device or another device).

✓ Sending spots for backup on server:

  • Send always to server
  • Send with wifi
  • Never send to server
  • Postpone send

The spots on the server are restored when you login (on the same device or another device).

✓ Scalebar:
Optionally, show the scalebar in meters and/or miles.

✓ Log period:
The log events are removed when older than the entered log period. This period must be at least 1 day; the default value is 40 days.

✓ Notification:
Mark the checkbox to hear a ringtone or not.

TheseBoots needs two obvious permissions in order to work properly. After registering an account you will be asked to grant these permissions :

  1. The straightforward permission for retrieving your location is needed. That is what this app is all about.
  2. Permission for access storage is needed for storing and loading profiles images of you and tracked persons.

Known bug:
Time selection fails in landscape orientation on some devices (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S6). Refer to bug report.