Latitude being shut down in its entirity Aug 9, 2013

[Brian Gaugler]

http://www.androidcentral.com/google-confirms-latitude-being-retired-august-9#comment-646792

We all saw this coming, but maybe now that the cat is out of the back officially- SOMEONE FROM GOOGLE CAN RESPOND???  
Will there be a new API for Google Locations, such as the new G+ location system.   Or to still work with Google Location history.  Is location history going away?

1000 hours down the drain.....

[Brian Gaugler]

bag*

[Matt Soave]

What a shame.... I really loved your app, Brian. I hope Google reveals some positive news about location services... but I don't have much hope. :\

[Josh Livni]

Hi there,

We have nothing to announce right now about potential future G+ or other API's, but currently there is no replacement API for programmatically inserting data into location history.

However location history itself will continue to be available for users to view and export.

[Charlie Kubal]

Bummed to see Latitude go -- I thought it was a pretty cool app. 

Wanted to chime in and offer an alternative -- we've been working on an application, Chronos, that connects with Latitude to import and visualize your data, and going forward will offer Android users the ability to collect data ongoing, too, to replicate and extend the functionality of Latitude.

We're taking sign ups now and planning to allow importing data very soon, and would love to hear any favorite features or feedback on what's up there now:

https://www.getchronos.com/latitude

best,

Charlie

co-founder, head of product at chronos

[Mark Gray]

I have been using Backtitude for a while now. It has been great at updating my location, solving problems I was having when Google Maps was doing the updates. Adding the option for G+ to use location data makes sense, but I am not sure I want G+ to be required for updating my location and looking at friends' location information.

Announcing that the Latitude API is being discontinued so soon without replacing its functionality does seem rather disrespectful to developers and users of Google-compatible software.

Are there any more suggestions for other location sharing services that work well for simply setting and getting latest lat/lon for people who have decided to share with you? I have built a small private service, but I would prefer to use one that someone else maintains and that has iOS and Android clients.

[Brian Gaugler]

The client developers should meet up with those of Google Reader for some beers...lol

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[Matt Crook]

First, I have a app that I wrote just for family so they can see where I am when I am trucking. It works along side with backitude.

I drive truck for a living, and last year I rolled my big rig loaded with dynamite, on the Alaska highway in winter. If it weren't for this feature, I wouldn't be here. You are selfish jerks and I will go to my last breath saving this feature (in turn it gave me that last breath) because it helped locate me by police, fire, and other services at that time.

Please figure out the API so that that backitude and my home made app can continue to look over me.

If I don't hear back from someone at Google with something that we are looking for, I will file an injuction with the canada supreme court because you will leave us and myself with no option.

Best wishes,
Matt

[Chris Johnson]

Will the Google Search app for iOS (with Google Now turned on) continue to update my location history?

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[Matt Soave]

Matt,

You make a great point (and have a great name!). I often use this to know where my girlfriend is when either of us go out. We each like to know that the other is roughly in the right place (e.g. making sure we made it to our destination at the expected time). Removing the timestamp makes it impossible to know how accurate the data is. I don't want to worry that she is stuck along the side of the road just because I don't know that the data hasn't updated in 30 minutes.

This was a pretty careless change, and I really wonder if anyone on the Maps team even used Latitude to know what the impacts of this oversimplification even are.

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[Brian Gaugler]

I think more features are coming for the Google+ system like time elapsed but an API is not one of them. 

[Doug Simmons]

Brian, ironic (and unfortunate) that I didn't find out about your app, though I had wished someone would create such a thing, until this damn announcement. This stings as a user, I can only imagine the frustration as a developer in your situation. Not to mention the short notice. Glad you have a donate link on your website (ahem, backitude users, hook the man up).

I found an adequate substitute for Google Reader (theoldreader). But for Latitude, Google+, at least in its current state, is not an adequate substitute, not even close, and it may be harder to find an acceptable replacement for this than Reader. I'm more of a casual user, but some people truly rely on Latitude and your app like trucker Matt Crook. Damn. 

> GOOGLE LATITUDE API is shutting down on August 9 meaning 

> Backitude will no longer sync locations to Google. I just found out 

> today July 10, 2013. I will have to figure out a new solution/use for

> this application.

Maybe Google will back off this plan. Maybe. They've been fickle with other closures. Please keep us updated on any sort of contingency plan either you come up with yourself or whatever alternative someone else made you'd advise the rest of us to go with, and where we can stay tuned to you, because your work is impressive and I'm interested in what you do next. 

Doug

[Lawrence Chiu]

Absolutely gutted!!!

Love Google location history, but it just didn't work accurately and also didn't work when offline.  Backitude was a godsend and I've been able to tack my breadcrumbs accurately all over the world, online or offline!?

If you (Google) are keeping google location history, why would you not still let apps like Backitude in to be able to update this data?  I've let Google update my location history in the past and its utter rubbish.  Often left with huge blank holes of "where was I?"

Severely disappointed!!!!! :'(

Please fix this and at least enable updates into Google Location History!!

Brian, have you gotten any response yet??

:(

Loz

[Brian Gaugler]

If I had to guess, I believe they are shutting down the API to all systems including the remaining location history dashboard and new Google+ Locations system because then Google is the only source of the location data coming in.   By being the only source they can claim ownership and sell the values to advertisers/prism.

This is the type of income that keeps Google going strong, so I'm not surprised but it's pretty unfortunate considering the lack of accuracy/efficiency in the past and the lack of control past and future.

[t...@esplorio.com]

Here at Esplorio (http://esplor.io) we've constructed some tight integration with Latitude, so we're a bit bummed to see the API go. The good news from us is that we've been working on location history replacement apps for a little while now which hook directly into Esplorio and will have some more advanced features that Latitude lacks (e.g. auto POI detection, transport mode detection). 

If you're interested in making some use of your historical Latitude data before the API goes dead head over to http://esplor.io and request an invite (we're in private beta right now). You can not only view your whole location history by day, place etc but also merge it with your other favourite social networks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram, Flickr, Picasa) to get a more complete picture of your location history along with photographs etc. Lots more features to come!

You'll need to sign up before the 9th of August to make use of this of course!

Hope that helps some of you,

Tim

--

Co-Founder Esplorio

[Josh Livni]

Cool idea Tim,

Just an FYI that even after August 9, users will still be able to access their own location history data via the dashboard or google takeout.  Although this is an extra step for users vs letting you download on their behalf, you can still accept a manual upload of their location history data even after the API turndown.

Cheers,

--

[t...@esplorio.com]

Thanks Josh, 

Yeah we saw you could do it with Takeout, but of course it means the whole onboarding process with Latitude data is fiddly enough that it is likely to put the majority of people off. 

We'll offer it as an option in the future, but it means we now have to do more development to make it happen!

Tim

On Friday, July 26, 2013 7:18:41 PM UTC+1, Josh Livni wrote:

Cool idea Tim,

Just an FYI that even after August 9, users will still be able to access their own location history data via the dashboard or google takeout.  Although this is an extra step for users vs letting you download on their behalf, you can still accept a manual upload of their location history data even after the API turndown.

Cheers,

On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 5:51 AM, <t...@esplorio.com> wrote:

Here at Esplorio (http://esplor.io) we've constructed some tight integration with Latitude, so we're a bit bummed to see the API go. The good news from us is that we've been working on location history replacement apps for a little while now which hook directly into Esplorio and will have some more advanced features that Latitude lacks (e.g. auto POI detection, transport mode detection). 

If you're interested in making some use of your historical Latitude data before the API goes dead head over to http://esplor.io and request an invite (we're in private beta right now). You can not only view your whole location history by day, place etc but also merge it with your other favourite social networks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram, Flickr, Picasa) to get a more complete picture of your location history along with photographs etc. Lots more features to come!

You'll need to sign up before the 9th of August to make use of this of course!

Hope that helps some of you,

Tim

--

Co-Founder Esplorio

On Wednesday, July 10, 2013 3:03:22 PM UTC+1, Brian Gaugler wrote:

http://www.androidcentral.com/google-confirms-latitude-being-retired-august-9#comment-646792

We all saw this coming, but maybe now that the cat is out of the back officially- SOMEONE FROM GOOGLE CAN RESPOND???  
Will there be a new API for Google Locations, such as the new G+ location system.   Or to still work with Google Location history.  Is location history going away?

1000 hours down the drain.....

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