GPS(Global Positioning System) location tracker can track one’s location wherever they are. The GPS location tracker works using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) network consisting of several satellites that relay microwave signals to GPS devices to provide information on the target position.

You can use a location tracker to track your kid’s or loved one’s location and track your employee’s location. You can also use it to track your lost or stolen phones. In this blog, you will learn about how the GPS works, the various mobile apps, and parental control and Spying apps that you can use as a location tracker. 

How a GPS location tracker works, and why should you use it?

If you’re a parent worried about your child’s safety and whereabouts, or a company owner who needs to see if your team travels from one place to another, a GPS location tracker allows you to securely track the GPS location of your targeted phones and have peace of mind.

To track the location of your kids.

Most parents want their children to become more accessible and independent. On the other hand, they are worried about their children’s welfare and whereabouts. They are always kept up at night by their fears. GPS location tracking aids in striking a balance between independence and monitoring. 

Your child might be old enough to hang out with their peers, but they may not be smart enough to make the best decisions. They could be going to places they shouldn’t or aren’t supposed to be. They could be going somewhere without your permission and not returning for a few days.

GPS monitoring provides parents with peace of mind by helping them to watch their children’s movements. You’ll be aware of the whole history of the place and be able to track your child’s every step. The location tracker will notify you if your child reaches restricted areas, and you will be able to protect them from danger.

To track the location of your employees.

As a company owner, you will want to be confident in the success of your employees. You may be interested in knowing where the staff is during business hours. If your employees work in the field-based part, you’ll want to make sure they’re in the right spot at the right time.

You can use GPS location monitoring to see if the workers should be during working hours. You can also know when your employees enter or exit the workplace. This functionality allows you to see your employee’s entire location history, allowing you to improve their efficiency and productivity.

Sometimes you might also have a suspicion if your employee might be working for your competitor’s business. They might be sharing your company’s valuable information, which can put your company’s growth in jeopardy. A location tracker can quickly tell where your employees are going or have been. 

Likewise, a company might have a restricted area where unauthorized employees can not enter. Using a location tracker, you can get alerted if an employee who is not authorized enters your company’s restricted area.

To track your lost or stolen phone

Sometimes you can misplace or lose your phone, or someone can steal your phone. So if you have a location tracking app installed on your phone, you can easily track your phone’s location and know where your phone is located.

Read More: How to find a lost phone?

How does the GPS location tracker system work?

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) network is used for a GPS tracking system. This network consists of several satellites that relay microwave signals to GPS devices to provide information on the position, vehicle speed, time, and direction. As a result, a GPS monitoring device can provide real-time and historical navigation data for any trip.

The Monitoring System for the Positioning System is made up of various tracking stations spread worldwide. These control stations aid in the detection of signals from the GPS satellites that orbit the earth continuously. Microwave carrier signals are transmitted by spacecraft. 

Users of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) have GPS receivers that translate satellite signals to estimate the exact location, velocity, and time. 

The system’s function is based on a fundamental mathematical theorem known as trilateration. There are two types of trilateration: 2-D trilateration and 3-D trilateration. The GPS receiver must know two things to do the essential mathematical measurement. It must first determine the position of the location, which can be traced by at least three satellites over the location. 

Second, it has to know how far away the location is from one of the Space Vehicles. Different receivers pick up signals from multiple GPS satellites at the same time in units of different receivers. The electric radiation that flies at the speed of light is what these radio waves are. In this way, a GPS location tracker works.

Mobile Apps you can use for GPS location tracking

When you are thinking about using a GPS location tracker on someone, there are tons of apps available on the google play store or an iPhone app store. You can easily install these location tracking apps on someone’s phone to track their GPS location. 

Best Mobile Apps for GPS Location Tracking

Here I have enlisted a few of my picks for the best mobile apps for tracking phone location:

1. Find My iPhone
2. OneLocator: Phone Tracker By Number
3. Life360: Family Locator & GPS Tracker for Safety
4. FollowMee GPS Tracker: Locate & Track Your Device

Find My iPhone

If you misplace your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, the Find My iPhone app will allow you to locate it and secure your data using any iOS device. Download the free software, open it, and sign in with your iCloud Apple ID. Find My iPhone allows you to locate your lost smartphone on a map, lock it remotely, play a sound, show a note, or delete any of its records.

Find My iPhone also has a Lost Mode feature for misplaced iOS users. Lost Mode uses a passcode to secure the smartphone and show a personalized message and phone number on the Lock Screen. When in Lost Mode, the smartphone can keep track of where it’s been and report back to the Find My iPhone app, allowing you to check its latest position history.

Features

• On a map, find your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac.
• Play a sound at full speed for two minutes (even if your device is set to silent)
• Set a passcode to lock your computer remotely.
• Use the Lock Screen to display a custom note.
• When in Lost Mode, you can see your device’s recent position history (iOS devices)
• Get directions to the device’s location.

OneLocator: Phone Tracker By Number

Keep your family and friends secure everywhere they go by being able to find and trace them easily. The Phone Tracker by Number is available for both Android and iPhone.

The Phone Tracker by Number app is a robust and reliable GPS tracker that will help you find your phone, as well as your family and friends. It’s intended to assist you in locating a family member using their cell phone number quickly and accurately. It also works as a fleet manager that helps for vehicle tracking.  

This phone tracker app allows family members and friends in a private network to watch each other’s GPS locations. Connect as many friends and family members as you want to the network to start monitoring them.

Features

• For an unlimited number of people, it’s completely secure.
• Fleet tracking systems.
• When one of your children is close by, you’ll get GPS alerts.
• The phone tracker software employs both cell monitoring and GPS tracking to maximize battery use and location accuracy.
• Using a family member’s registered phone, you can quickly locate your missing or stolen phone.
• The app supports both mobile network providers.
• When your children switch from one place to another, the app will notify you immediately. There’s no need to refresh locations to get the most up-to-date information.
• It pinpoints your child’s precise realtime location and offers navigational assistance on a chart so you can find them.

Life360: Family Locator & GPS Tracker for Safety

Life 360 is also available for both iPhone and Android. With robust protection features for life at home, on the phone, and on the go — all in one location for added value and comfort — protect and link the people who matter most. You can take advantage of cutting-edge tools that go beyond a simple GPS phone tracker.

Features

• SOS to give a silent warning to family members, emergency contacts, fleet tracking, vehicle driving behaviors, and responders with your location.
• Emergency dispatch is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the immediate family. We will assist you, and though you are unable to call for assistance.
• For robust real-time tracking and expert assistance, wherever and in any case, use Family Safety Assist.
• Identity Theft Security and white-glove repair service for each family member’s digital records, with up to $1 million in coverage.

FollowMee GPS Tracker: Locate & Track Your Device

Your mobile computer (phone or tablet) becomes a GPS tracking device with FollowMee GPS Tracker. When you install this app on the smartphone you want to watch, you can use the FollowMee website to track its location. 

Monitor your family phones, mobile business devices, or employee phones with this app. You can use this software for personal and professional purposes, and it is available for both iPhone and Android devices.

Read More: Best Fake GPS Location Apps for Android

Features

Location Monitor

Use your laptop or smartphone browser to access the FollowMee website. You will get a free map of the last known spot. The website offers geo-fencing, mileage monitoring, position sharing, state residency reporting, and other monitoring services.

Configurable App Settings

This app records every 5 minutes by chance. You can change this interval setting to allow more real-time monitoring. You can set up a monitoring schedule or even a lock screen with a password. Business users can use MDM to deploy this software and its settings to remote computers.

Tracking Multiple devices

You can monitor various devices in your account, including those from other mobile platforms (iOS and Windows). On the same map, all of your devices are shown.

Business Features

This software is designed with enterprise users in mind. You will organize the devices into working groups or geographical regions. Give the group leader a delegate account and give him access to only his group of computers. You can use MDM to deploy apps. For business users, we have API, email reports, and extended history, among other things.

No-Internet Contingency 

To add location data to the FollowMee server, you’ll need a cellular or WiFi link. When the app’s link is lost, it manages to log and save data to the device’s storage. Data is then uploaded when the link is restored. After that, your map will display the most up-to-date information.

Monitoring or Spying apps for GPS Location Tracking

If you secretly want to track someone’s geolocation, you can use various kinds of spying and monitoring apps. All you have to do is install the software on your personal computer and then secretly install the app on the target’s device. If the target device is an iPhone device, all you need are their cloud login credentials.

Best Parental Control Monitoring and Spying apps for Location tracking

Here I have enlisted a few of my picks for the best monitoring or spying apps for tracking phone location:

1. mSpy
2. MobileSpy
3. TheOneSpy
4. FlexiSpy
5. Cocospy
6. Spyic
7. KidsGuard Pro

What can you do with a GPS location tracker spy app?

Using various GPS tracker apps, you will be able to:

• Get access to the target’s location history.

Track position and path history, as well as the latitude, longitude, address, date, and time of each location you visit.

• Get Notifications in Real-Time

Track past travel history and receive real-time alerts anytime the targeted Android or iOS devices leave a specified location or enter a prohibited zone.

• Link to a Map

You will also be able to access the map link and view GPS location on the Google Map.

How does GPS location tracking work on spy apps?

The GPS location tracker works by monitoring the location of the targeted device in real-time. You may also establish a virtual border around a geographic region and get notifications if the boundaries are breached.

To do so, you’ll need to install a mobile tracking and monitoring app on the targeted Android device. In the iOS version, most monitoring apps, on the other hand, do not require any downloads because it is entirely web-based. 

To begin, sign in to your GPS tracker app account. On the home screen, in the left-hand selection column, you’ll find the GPS tracking feature. To begin spying on the target computer and monitor its position in real-time, click on it. 

The details are dependent on data from the target device’s WiFi and GPS. The location tracker would pin down your goal Android or iOS device’s previous locations on an immersive mind. You can display your target’s location on a map and monitor their GPS coordinates with just a tap through a phone GPS tracker. 

Most monitoring applications aren’t just phone trackers or GPS trackers. You can view the location history from the targeted Android and iOS smartphones, including dates, times, coordinates, and other details.

Geofencing Feature on Spy Apps

Spy Apps also give you the feature of geofencing. You can use geofencing to create hypothetical borders around specified geographical areas, and you’ll be alerted when the person you’re tracking enters or exits the designated area. 

Geofencing alerts are among the most effective and valuable mechanisms for keeping track of your children/employees’ whereabouts in real-time. It enables you to be updated if your child/employee leaves or returns to their assigned locations.

It would be best if you designated places where your child should be at all times of the day. You will mark their school and home on the map and get a notification as they leave or reach any place. You should also choose the roads they’re going to take so that you’re alerted if they go anywhere you don’t want them to go.

Likewise, if your workers are required to be present in a particular region or location at any given time, you can use the geofencing function to ensure that they are. It would help you avoid fake market visits and field trips, as well as improve employee transparency.

Read More: 5 benefits of GPS phone tracking for your kids 

Conclusion

The GPS location tracker works using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) network consisting of several satellites that relay microwave signals to GPS devices to provide information on the target position.

After knowing how a GPS location tracker works, you can use it to locate where your kids are and ensure their safety. You can find your lost or stolen phone through a GPS tracker to precisely locate where your phone is at the current time.

Likewise, if you are a business owner, you can use it to track your employees. If your employees are in field-based work, you can make sure they’re in the right spot at the right time. You can use GPS location monitoring to see if the workers should be during working hours. 

So, these are the ways that you can make the best use of a GPS tracking system. Have you ever used a location tracker app on someone? Then, what kind of app did you use? Do let us know in the comments.