Our smartphones can do a lot, but perhaps one of the most underrated things they can do is offer some serious peace of mind for families. That’s a big part of the reason that location sharing apps have been popular for years, but many of them can also be a privacy nightmare. That’s the problem HeyPolo from Surfshark aims to fill – a privacy-first family safety app.
HeyPolo supports location sharing optimized for families, but while respecting your privacy both to the outside world and within the family.
While most location-sharing apps are always on, HeyPolo is designed around time-limited sharing. Family members can set specific repeating times for their location to be shared, or use one-time shares for specific nights out or trips. But if a timer is set, that’s it. The app stops sharing your location as soon as you want it to. You can, of course, enable 24/7 sharing, but it’s completely up to you.
You can also tailor location sharing to include your exact location, a general area, or set it to private mode on a person-by-person or group-by-group basis, giving each family member some level of privacy while still sharing their details. HeyPolo also keeps a log of your trips, but you can similarly choose who can see those past trips and what they can see.
HeyPolo also features smart notifications, including SOS alerts and the ability to be notified when family members enter or leave a certain location, or even if their battery is getting low. Again, everyone gets full control over the privacy of these sorts of notifications.
There’s also an “Emergency Access” feature that grants someone one-time access to your live location, if you give them permission, in the case location sharing isn’t enabled during an emergency. This can be limited, such as only allowing it once per year, so it isn’t abused.
Another useful feature is driving tracking, which not only monitors location and history, but driving speed and habits.
The app is fully built around the idea of consent-based tracking, with no always-on modes by default. As HeyPolo explains, it gives family members peace of mind “without turning relationships into surveillance.”
HeyPolo never sells or exploits user location data – it’s not monetized at all – and everything is fully encrypted both on Android and iOS. And there’s reason to have trust here, as HeyPolo is developed by the team behind Surfshark, one of the world’s leading VPN providers.
The app is instead funded by a subscription fee that only one person has to pay. For $3.99/month, you can create groups of family, friends, or even workmates. You subscribe and everyone else joins for free – and it’s unlimited.
You can try HeyPolo for 7 days for free, with the $3.99/month fee coming in the form of a one-time $47.88 annual payment. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee.
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