Three location choices
A check-in can carry no location, one location point, or a deliberate live-sharing session. Those are different choices and should feel different to the person sharing.
- No location: send the check-in without a map point
- One-time point: attach one map point to that check-in
- Live session: start active sharing only after the sharer chooses it
- Old location should not be mistaken for fresh location
What the partner cannot do
Optional location is not useful if the other person can quietly turn it into tracking. BaeMax does not let the partner start your live location from their phone.
- Partner cannot remotely enable your live session
- Partner cannot make a no-location check-in include a map point
- Android permission still belongs to the sharer
- A visible notification helps make active sharing obvious
What not to rely on
Location sharing is convenient context. It is not a safety system, emergency service, or guarantee that someone is okay.
- Network and Android background limits can interrupt updates
- Battery settings can affect live sharing
- Freshness expiry matters
- Urgent safety situations need local emergency resources
If the goal is safety
Use direct calls, a trusted safety tool, a planned check-in with a real person, or local emergency services when safety is urgent. BaeMax location can help with a chosen moment, but it should not be the safety plan.
Run a permission and expiry test together
Use a familiar place and a non-urgent situation for the first test. Send a check-in without location, then one with a single point, and finally start a short live session if the feature is needed. Compare what the recipient sees, how freshness is labeled, which system notification appears on the sharer's phone, and whether the session ends at the expected time. Revoke location permission afterward and confirm the rest of the app remains usable. This reveals more than a promise that location is optional.
- Use approximate location if it meets the purpose and the product supports it.
- Check behavior with poor signal and after the phone locks.
- Agree that no update, a stale point, or a failed send does not imply danger or consent to investigate.
- Delete or stop sharing when the moment has passed instead of leaving a standing session for convenience.
- Test whether denying precise location still permits a no-location check-in; core support should not break because map permission is off.
- Review saved map history and screenshots on both phones after the test, since ending a session cannot erase information already retained.
- Never use optional sharing as proof of honesty, fidelity, or whereabouts. A request can be declined without losing access to unrelated couples features.
- For routine arrivals, a typed message may be clearer and collect less location data than a map point.
- If the partner repeatedly requests location after a refusal, turn the feature off and treat the pressure as a relationship boundary problem.
- A stale or absent point should never trigger accusations; confirm plans through ordinary communication.
- Remove Android location permission when neither person expects to use the feature for a while.