WayTrk Help

The style of the line shows how someone was travelling:

• dotted – on foot
• dashed – by bike
• solid – by car or another vehicle

When exactly one track is shown, the colour underneath shows the speed – from green (slow) to purple (motorway). Arrows show the direction, stop markers the places where someone stopped.

• Green circle with a flag – Start: the track starts here in the chosen period.
• Dark circle with a chequered flag – Finish: the track ends here in the chosen period.
• Circle in the device's colour with a car, a walker or a bicycle – Change: the way of travelling changed here. The symbol shows the new one, so a car means "Got in".
• Circle in the device's colour with a P – Parked: the car stood here. You got out and later got back into the same car. Tap it for both times.
• Red circle – Stop: the phone stood still here for at least 4 minutes, whether in the car, at home or in a shop. A number in it means several stops at this place.
• Interlocking circles – Several things at one spot: something happened here at different times, the earlier on the left. With more than two, the right one shows how many more. Tap it for everything in order of time.
• Pale dashed line – No recording: the phone sent no position for a while. The line only joins the last two known points; the way between them is unknown.
• Small pale dot with a dashed rim – Sign of life: the phone reported that it was here without moving, for example in a shop. It is not part of the route.
• Small red dot on the pin – the device is standing right now.

Stop or Parked? With a P, the car stands still and you walk away. With a stop, you stand still yourself. If both happen at the same time, the map only shows the P – its window then shows how long.

Tap a symbol and the window says in one sentence what it is, with the time and the measured values below. The app explains the symbols too: slider icon at the top → "What do the symbols mean?".

Usually it is the phone's power saving mode. When it is on, Android checks the location far less often – in our test, instead of one point per second there were only one to four per minute, and once none at all for a minute and a half. WayTrk cannot get around this.

If no point arrived for too long although the phone has moved a good distance, the map draws a pale dashed line there instead of the normal route. That way you can see that nothing was recorded in between. Tap it to see when the last and the next point arrived.

Tip: Switch power saving mode off while you want to record a route completely.

The GPS in a phone is accurate to a few metres – less so between tall buildings, under trees and indoors. WayTrk smooths the points and puts trips onto the road, but not every deviation can be calculated away.

Small zigzags, a stretch next to the path or a symbol a few metres off come from this inaccuracy, not from the route actually taken.

Tap a device's pin and then "Show track" or "Hide track". Alternatively, open the slider icon at the top right: in the table "Devices on the map", every device has a tick box in the "Track" column. That is also where you choose the period, such as "Today" or "Yesterday".

Yes. Tap the pin and then "Hide device" – the pin and the track disappear. Or tap the eye in the "Show" column under the slider icon at the top right.

As long as something is hidden, a line below the header says, for example, "1 device hidden". Tapping it opens the table, where a tap on the eye brings the device back.

Hiding changes only what your phone shows. Recording and sharing carry on as before.

The map reloads every 15 seconds – the counter at the top right counts down until then. It shows what the phones last sent. When a phone lies still, it reports less often, and its dot may be older.

For the position right now, tap the counter and choose "Ask the phones". WayTrk then asks every phone on the map for its location. The ring turns, and a line below the header says, for example, "Asking 2 phones … 1 answered". This usually takes 5 to 20 seconds.

• The phone that is asked shows nothing – it does not ring and does not announce anything.
• Only a phone whose recording is switched on can answer. If it is off, has no signal or is switched off, its last dot stays where it is.
• Each phone can be asked once a minute.

"Just reload" only fetches what is already there. With the tick box "Don't ask again", the next tap starts straight away; you can bring the question back under the slider icon at the top right with the switch "Ask before updating".

The quickest way is on the map: tap the pin and "View history". Or tap "Devices" at the bottom, tap the device and choose "View history" there.

The list shows, day by day, every drive, every walk and every bike ride with time, duration, distance and – as soon as they are known – start and destination as addresses. Tapping an entry shows it on the map. For other people's devices this only works if they have also shared their history with you.

From the speed and from your phone's motion sensors. GPS alone cannot always tell whether someone is driving slowly or walking briskly – the sensors can. That is why WayTrk asks for motion detection (on Android "Physical activity").

The permission is optional. Without it, WayTrk still records, but tells the difference less reliably – and it only recognises a bike with it.

In the trip list, below each date, you see what came together that day, by type:

• 🚗 the number of drives and the kilometres driven
• 🚲 the kilometres by bike
• 🚶 the kilometres on foot

Only what actually happened that day appears. The daily overview is part of the subscription.

Walks under five minutes – say, from the car to the front door – do not get a line of their own, otherwise the list would be full of them. They are still saved, and their metres are real metres. That is why the daily overview counts them.

At the very top of the list it says how many short walks there are, for example "27 short walks under 5 minutes". The switch next to it lists them as well.

Yes, for your own devices: tap the pencil next to the trip, for example "shopping run". Leaving it empty removes the name again.

1. Tap "Devices" at the bottom and then "Share with one person".
2. "Create code" gives you an invitation code. Send it to the person.
3. The person taps "Redeem code" under "Devices" in their app and enters the code.

Whether the person sees only your current position or also your history, you decide for each share separately. By default it is only the position.

Any time. Each share has "Pause" – the person then sees nothing until you choose "Resume" – and "End". After ending, sharing again needs a new invitation. Whoever loses a share is told.

Under "Devices", tap "Create group", then "Invite somebody" in the group. For a young child, you can set it up so that the child is seen but does not see anyone.

Important: everyone decides for themselves who sees them. Newcomers see nobody until every member has agreed individually.

You pay by the number of people who are seen – from €2.99 a month or €24.99 a year in the euro zone; Google Play shows the price for your country. All plans are on the home page. Watching is free, and every plan includes every feature. The first 14 days are free.

The subscription will soon be available right in the app through Google Play, where you can cancel it any time, effective at the end of the billing period.

Yes, always. While WayTrk is recording, a notification stays on the phone. There is no invisible tracking.

WayTrk stores the points on the phone and sends them as soon as there is a connection again. Nothing gets lost; the route just appears a little later on the others' maps.

On our server in Germany. Photos you give a device stay on your phone.

Under "More" you will find "Export my data" (everything as JSON, or the tracks as GPX) and "Delete account" – permanently, with all data. Without the app, deletion also works via waytrk.de/konto-loeschen (in German). Details are in the privacy policy.