Radar Maps: description

Radar Maps is an anonymous location sharing application that do not require any registration or login to external services. When the user launches the app, he or she can see all the users currently using Radar Maps on the map. If there are too many users in the vicinity, the user can select a particular "channel" to slim down the number of users displayed.

Such anonymous location sharing is useful for a number of purposes. For example, people attending a city-wide photo walk can share their location without revealing their identity. It can also be used for personal purposes such as going out on a drive with multiple cars. This is where the "channel" feature becomes handy where the group can tune into a particular channel to see where the entire member is spread out. The anonymity and ease of use allows many creative use for Radar Maps, such as real world hide and seek games, meeting up with strangers, etc.

The "Position Lock" button locks the position of the user in the center of the map. Under this mode, the map will scroll with the users' movement, keeping the user locked in the center.

The "Zoom" button centralizes the users' location on the map and zooms out to show the nearest Radar Maps user. This is useful to find the relative distance and direction of another user. Used in cases like walking, driving or cruising when you want to have a sense of where everybody else is located.

The "Radar" button switches the map into a heading mode, where the map rotates to show where the user is heading. This is useful for meeting up with another user. The distance towards the nearest user is shown in kilometers in the bottom left panel.

The "Filter" selection button in the setup menu allows users to slim down the users displayed on the map to a particular "channel". If this is set to off, all users of Radar Maps is displayed on the map.

"Send message" button in the Channel panel allows users to send an iMessage to friends notifying that they are using the Radar Maps app at a certain location under a certain channel with an URL. The recipient can tap on the URL to launch Radar Maps (if it is installed) and find the sender's location.

Use cases: It is important to note that Radar Maps is an anonymous location sharing application, so your identity is not revealed on the map. This limitation is on purpose, and gives way for many creative uses. For example:

1.Meeting up with another user: Say you have chatted with someone on iMessage and want to meet up with this person. The two of you can use a particular channel to find each other, use "Send message" function to find each other.

2.Using a particular "channel" to find the location of your party: When you and your friends or family is on a trip using multiple cars, you can share your location using Radar Maps. Just decide on a particular "channel" you are going to use beforehand and use the filter to show only your party on the map. No need for calling each other on the phone to check where they are. You can see it all on the Radar Map.

3.Using Radar Maps in events: The host of an event can announce that they are using a particular channel for location sharing. Then, all the attendees can see on Radar Maps where it is crowded, or how people are spread out in the venue. This is very useful when the venue is split into multiple sites.

The concept of "channel" is similar to that of a radio transceiver. Since location data shared on Radar Maps is completely anonymous, even if you and your friend decides to use a particular channel for meeting up, the channel may be already crowded with other users making it hard for you to find each other. This playful limitation is intentional, so you and your friend must change to a different channel or make a use out of all the "noise" of other users moving around on Radar Maps.

The "Background Update" in the setup menu will allow Radar Maps to keep sharing the location even when the app is in the background.

When there is no change in location or the app is turned off for over an hour, the server will remove your location and will not be visible on Radar Maps.

NOTICE: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

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