Re: How will the police find me.

Arno Welzel wrote on Tue, 21 May 2024 10:29:50 +0200 :

Therefore do not go alone!

That's not bad advice, but he's not climbing Mount Denali either.
He's just hiking. Hiking alone is what millions of people do.

There's nothing wrong with it. It's like driving alone.
Or like reading alone. Or watching TV alone.

Accidents can happen anywhere.
You just need to be prepared for the most likely ones.

An Android device can not help you in an emergency if it breaks or the
battery is dead.

Or if there isn't any cellphone service in the area, which is why I had
suggested a ham radio or satellite service (which I know is rarely used).

Or is my friend supposed to somehow send the location information she
can see on her phone to their phone?   How? 

 
You can share your location on Google Maps with another user either for
a limited time period or until you turn off this option again:
 
<https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7326816?hl=en>
 
Besides that, OSMAnd also supports location sharing.
 
<https://osmand.net/docs/user/plugins/osmand-tracker/>
 
Regardless which solution you use - the other person also needs Google
Maps or OSMAnd to view your current location.

I didn't know about OSMAnd. That's a nice feature if it works well.
 "OsmAnd Tracker is a modified Telegram client created for flexible
  monitoring and sending messages with GPS locations in real-time."
 <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand.telegram>

But keep in mind that having GPS enabled all the time and sending
location updates drains your battery quite fast. So also keep a big
power bank with you. Also keep in mind that the device can fail and/or
batteries can get empty.

A second radio seems to me to be a safe bet although I have a (rather
heavy) battery pack for charging a phone with foldout solar cells.