iOS 2.1.9 and Android 3.9.1
Coming in the next update · October 2026Where things are
- Settings is one tap from the map again. The gear left the map earlier this month; it is now the first row of the menu under the ☰ button, on both platforms, and still in the Family tab's Setup section.
- Manage This Nest is the first row of the Family tab. Removing a member, renaming the nest, leaving it: go to Family, tap the first row.
- The last of the old screens are gone on iPhone too. Places, Emergency Contacts, Speed Alerts and "who alerts you here" are grouped lists like the rest of the app; "Create a nest" asks for the name and then shows the code to share; Watch Over Me picks a place on the same map picker live tracking uses; live tracking's weather, paused state and distances are small chips over the map; the nest rename, the loading spinner and the "opening your link" screen are redrawn.
- The ☰ menu is a sheet in the same style as the rest of the app on both platforms (iPhone's sliding drawer is gone): Settings, your nests, premium, share, help, privacy and terms.
- What's new, in the app. The first time the map opens after an update, a sheet lists what moved and what changed, each card with a "Show me" that opens the tab it lives on. It is also under Family → What's new any time. A fresh install or a "Welcome back" does not get it.
Signing in and getting back in
- Deleted the app and installed it again? Both platforms now open on Welcome back. On iPhone a member who joined with a code is simply back; an email, Apple or Google account is asked "Continue as …?" first, with "Use another account" for a phone being set up for someone else. Android now does the same on any phone: a code-only member taps Restore my profile, an email or Google member taps Continue with the account filled in. Signing out, Delete my data and Start over clear it.
- A new Android phone set up from your Google backup gets the same "Welcome back" prompt, and a code-only member's recovery code travels with the backup too.
- Joining a nest that has a family pack links the new member to it as they join; no more "trial ended" screen for them.
Place alerts
- "Get place alerts?" — once per nest, a member who never chose alerts for any of its places is asked when the map opens: Turn on (every place, every member), Choose, or Not now. Until now the person who made a place got alerts and everyone who joined later got none.
- Everyone means everyone, including members who join later. Turn every member on for a place and a new member's arrivals and departures reach you without a trip back to the settings; turn one person off and the list is exactly the people you picked again.
History and trips
- A flight is a flight. The phone goes dark at one airport and wakes at the other; History shows that as a trip between the two, not a long stay at the departure airport.
- A drive that comes back the way it went no longer ends early (Android). A stop, a short turn-back and the drive home used to end the trip at full speed and lose the next few kilometres; it keeps going now, and a trip that is ended wrongly restarts within a minute or two.
- The history timeline on iPhone lines up again. "Location options" is a small chip rather than a heavy link, and every entry has the same room above and below.
- Offline drives still record. Points are kept on the phone and sent once it is back online.
- A gap in a drive is drawn along the road. Where the phone slept for a stretch, Trip details used to join the two ends with a straight dashed line; it now asks for the road between them (the routing server on Android, Apple Maps on iPhone) and draws the dashes along it. A gap whose road would be a long detour, or shorter than 150 m, stays a straight dash.
Live tracking
- The map keeps the person and their destination in view. Once a destination is set, the map refits as they get closer instead of framing the route once and standing still. Pan or pinch and it stays where you put it, with a button back to the person or to the fitted view.
- Picture-in-picture on Android always moves by itself now.
- Fewer route requests from Android. Live tracking asked for a fresh route on every location update; it now asks every 15 seconds at most, and only once either end has moved 100 m or 2 % of the route. The distance and ETA shown are the same.
- iPhone frames the person properly when the screen opens and when the panel at the bottom is raised or lowered; the map used to fit before it knew how much of it the panel covered, so the pin could sit under the panel.
- Opening live tracking on someone who paused sharing — from the widget too — says "Sharing paused · for 2 days" once and closes. On iPhone the note used to come back on every update and the screen could not be left.
Android: battery optimization, and the guide for it
- Battery optimization on is now a red problem, not an orange one. On most Android phones an "optimized" app stops sharing once the screen is off, so a member in that state used to read as "slower updates" while their location had in fact stopped. Everyone now sees it the way they see a missing permission: red, the address line replaced, with Ask to fix; live tracking shows the banner too; and the member's own phone raises its daily fix reminder for it.
- One battery guide for every phone. Keep Family Nest running replaces the two 2020-era screens: step one is the system dialog every Android has, then your phone's maker (detected, switchable) with current steps for Samsung, Xiaomi / Redmi / POCO, OnePlus, Oppo / Realme, Vivo / iQOO, Huawei / Honor and plain Android, each with a button to the right settings page, plus how to keep the app out of the memory cleaner.
Picking a spot on the map (Android)
- One picker everywhere. Live tracking's "Pick on map", Watch Over Me's from and to, and live sharing's "Heading to" now use the same screen as adding a place: search, a pin the map moves under, the address of what is under it, My location and the map style, with "Use this spot".
The member card (Android)
- Addresses land, pictures match. Timeline rows no longer sit on "Fetching…" until you scroll away and back, and a trip's picture no longer shows another trip's route for a moment; the card also grows smoothly as the address and the day's history arrive instead of jumping.
When someone pauses sharing
- "Sharing paused", not "something is preventing…". A member who turned location sharing off for the nest used to look like a phone with a problem, with an "Ask to fix" that sent them a fix request although their settings were fine. Everywhere they appear — the member card, the list under the map, live tracking, the Android widget — they are now Sharing paused · for 3 hours (or days), grey, with no fix to ask for; the card explains their location will update again once they turn it back on. Your own card says You paused sharing with a Turn on that opens Manage This Nest.
Android
- Background checks are lighter. A check runs every five minutes but only takes a real GPS fix when the phone's own sensors say you may have moved, or every half hour for the map's "last seen". No notification, no GPS, no data otherwise.
- Notifications are sorted into categories: your nest's alerts, live tracking, and the background-location notices, which you can turn off under Preferences → Hide background location notifications. Live tracking keeps its own notice so you always know when someone is following you live.
- Nest at a Glance widget: the short address, a refresh every 30 minutes while the app is closed (premium), and a tap on a member opens live tracking of them in the nest they are in.
- Faces, not initials, when the app opens. Members' photos come from the phone's own cache on the first frame instead of being fetched again on every cold start.
- A proper splash screen: the app icon on its blue, instead of a plain blue screen.
- The last of the old screens are gone. The map's menu is a sheet like the rest of the app (nests, premium, share, social, privacy); "Create a nest" asks for the name on the same screen first-run uses and then shows the code to share; live tracking's "Change destination" is a grouped list with You, Pick on map and your places nearest first; a stay opened from history, Help & Support, My Nests, the trial-ended screen, the battery-optimisation guides and the alert-detail screen are all redrawn in the same style; the history map's top bar, day arrows and calendar match too. Every plain alert in the app now uses one Material dialog instead of the old custom box.
- Signing in is quicker. "Welcome back → Continue" with a Google account opens Google's sign-in already on that account instead of the full account list; the app reads your name and nest at the same time rather than one after the other; and the map opens straight away, without the dimmed overlay that used to cover the first seconds.