Questions

Last updated 12 September 2026

Basics Being located Accuracy & battery History When it stops working

Basics

What is Orbit?

A map of the people you choose to share with. You create a circle, invite the people you want in it, and everyone who has sharing on appears on each other's map. You can save places like home and school and be told when someone arrives or leaves, and anyone can send an SOS to the whole circle.

What does it cost?

Nothing. There is no subscription, no paid tier, no trial that starts charging, and no advertising. Thirty days of location history and twenty places with alerts are included, which is the part other apps charge for.

How is it free? What is the catch?

Orbit costs a few pence per person per month to run, and we cover that. We do not sell location data and there are no adverts or analytics in the app — see the Privacy Policy, which is specific rather than vague about it.

Does it work across iPhone and Android?

Yes, and that is much of the point. There is also a web dashboard at the dashboard for a bigger screen, which needs you to have added an email address to your account first.

How do I invite someone?

Settings → Send invite link. They tap the link, install Orbit, and they join automatically. If a messaging app mangles the link, the six-character code in the message still works — open Orbit and type it in.

How many people can be in a circle?

There is no limit. You can also belong to several circles at once — family and friends do not have to be the same map.

Being located

Can I stop sharing without anyone being told?

Yes. Turn sharing off, or pause an individual circle, and the others simply see "not sharing". No notification goes out saying you switched it off. We think announcing it turns a privacy control into social pressure.

Can I stay visible to most of a circle but hide from one person?

Yes. Settings → Who can see me → turn that person off. This is enforced by the database itself: their app never receives your position, so there is nothing for it to display even if it wanted to.

Does the SOS get through if I have hidden from someone?

Yes, deliberately. An SOS goes to everyone in the circle including anyone you have hidden from, and the confirmation tells you that before you send it. The next ordinary update goes back to your usual audience.

Is the SOS connected to the emergency services?

No. It alerts the people in your circle and nobody else. No one is monitoring it on your behalf. In an emergency call 999.

Someone installed this on my phone without telling me. What do I do?

Open Orbit, go to Settings and turn off Share my location — collection stops at once. You can then leave the circle, which deletes your position and history for it, and delete your account entirely. Using Orbit to monitor an adult without their consent breaches our terms and may be a criminal offence. If you are in danger, contact the police.

Do you sell location data?

No. Not to brokers, advertisers, insurers or analytics firms, in any form.

Accuracy and battery

Why does it need location "all the time" / in the background?

A family map that only updates when someone opens the app is not a family map — the position you need is the one from twenty minutes ago when nobody was looking. Background access is only used while you have sharing switched on, and on Android a permanent notification is shown the whole time it is active.

What is the circle around someone's dot?

The accuracy of that fix. A tight ring means a good GPS reading; a wide one means the phone worked the position out from wifi or a phone mast and could be anywhere inside it. Every other app draws the same confident dot either way, which is why their dots are sometimes wrong with no warning.

Why does it sometimes not update for a while?

Orbit will not draw a position it does not trust. A fix vaguer than 250 metres is dropped, and so is one implying a speed over about 324 km/h, which is how a glitch teleports someone across town. A stationary phone also reports less often to save battery. The timestamp under each person always tells you how old their position is.

Will it drain my battery?

It samples according to what you are doing: GPS-grade while walking or driving, low power when parked, and a phone sitting still stops reporting almost entirely. Any app with background location costs some battery — this one spends it where it changes the answer.

What does the low battery alert do?

When a phone drops to 15% the circle is told once. It is the most common reason someone vanishes off the map, and knowing the phone is about to die is more useful than wondering why the dot stopped.

Location history

How long is my history kept?

Whatever you choose: off, 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days. Settings → Location history. The expiry is enforced by the database, so it happens whether or not anyone opens the app.

Can I turn history off completely?

Yes — set it to Off and nothing is recorded. Existing history is deleted when you do.

Who can see my history?

Exactly the people who can see you live. Hide from someone and your whole trail, past and future, goes with it in the same instant.

Why are there gaps in someone's day?

Because there is genuinely no record for that stretch — the phone was off, out of signal, or not sharing. Orbit draws it as a gap and says so, often with the reason, rather than joining the dots with a line that implies knowledge it does not have.

When it stops working

Someone's location is stuck or they have disappeared

Usually one of: their phone is off or flat, they have no signal, they paused sharing, or their phone's battery saver has frozen the app. Check the timestamp under their name — it tells you how stale the position is rather than pretending it is current.

My own location is not updating for others

I am not getting notifications

Settings → SOS alerts shows whether this phone can receive them and offers a test alert. Check too that you have not muted that person or that alert type, and that quiet hours are not on — though an SOS ignores all of those by design.

I cannot sign in to the web dashboard

Orbit creates an account silently on first launch, and that account has no password. Open the app, go to Settings → Secure this account, and add an email address. That is what the dashboard signs in with.

How do I delete everything?

See Deleting your account.

Still stuck

Email support@londonj.co.uk and tell us what phone you are using and what you expected to happen.