Google Maps Timeline - Absolutely terrible?
Discussion
I switched Google Maps Timeline on about a week ago (iPhone 13) as I thought it may come in useful or interesting at some point, but it appears to be completely and utterly useless.
The line on the map of where I have been that day just jumps all over the place in long straight 'as the crow flies' lines and it seems to get every destination wrong that I have been to. It also seems to have an unexplainable and unhealthy interest in churches! It marks me down as visiting every church I go within half a mile of
Some days it will draw multiple journeys from my house to random places on the map, and back again, and I haven't even been anywhere near those places.
Does anyone actually use Timeline and fine it even slightly accurate?
The line on the map of where I have been that day just jumps all over the place in long straight 'as the crow flies' lines and it seems to get every destination wrong that I have been to. It also seems to have an unexplainable and unhealthy interest in churches! It marks me down as visiting every church I go within half a mile of
Some days it will draw multiple journeys from my house to random places on the map, and back again, and I haven't even been anywhere near those places.
Does anyone actually use Timeline and fine it even slightly accurate?
I have it enabled, it's usually fairly accurate but occasionally you get glitches - I was hillwalking at the Grey Mare's Tail near Moffat, and looking back at the trace it appears I was momentarily in Galashiels. Useful for reminding me where I was on a certain day but not much else.
Halmyre said:
I have it enabled, it's usually fairly accurate but occasionally you get glitches - I was hillwalking at the Grey Mare's Tail near Moffat, and looking back at the trace it appears I was momentarily in Galashiels. Useful for reminding me where I was on a certain day but not much else.
I have just reviewed the full week that I have had it turned on, and it is really inaccurate for all days. Showing journeys I haven't made, having me down as visiting places that I haven't, and generally jumping all over the place by literally miles. A quick google (and a read of Reddit) suggests that lots of other people have the exact same issues I do, on all kinds of devices (Apple/Android) and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
It is pretty much unusable as it is, and I have no idea what I might be doing (or not doing) that would make it this way.
The funny thing is, I use Google Maps a heck of a lot, probably daily, and my location is always showing as perfectly accurate on the map. Literally to the point it knows what part of my house I'm sat in! So no idea why this is so bad.
Mont Blanc said:
I have just reviewed the full week that I have had it turned on, and it is really inaccurate for all days. Showing journeys I haven't made, having me down as visiting places that I haven't, and generally jumping all over the place by literally miles.
A quick google (and a read of Reddit) suggests that lots of other people have the exact same issues I do, on all kinds of devices (Apple/Android) and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
It is pretty much unusable as it is, and I have no idea what I might be doing (or not doing) that would make it this way.
The funny thing is, I use Google Maps a heck of a lot, probably daily, and my location is always showing as perfectly accurate on the map. Literally to the point it knows what part of my house I'm sat in! So no idea why this is so bad.
It can only be 100% accurate if it has GPS constantly switched on and connected to a satellite. This would wipe out your battery in ~4 hoursA quick google (and a read of Reddit) suggests that lots of other people have the exact same issues I do, on all kinds of devices (Apple/Android) and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
It is pretty much unusable as it is, and I have no idea what I might be doing (or not doing) that would make it this way.
The funny thing is, I use Google Maps a heck of a lot, probably daily, and my location is always showing as perfectly accurate on the map. Literally to the point it knows what part of my house I'm sat in! So no idea why this is so bad.
If you try driving using Android Auto/Apple Carplay and check the timeline afterwards it will be perfect because under that usage GPS is constantly active
If you do want to get a record of all of the places that you go to then the simple fix is to open Maps when you get there and let it properly register your location
If you also want all of your journeys accurately mapped then you need maps open constantly!
flight147z said:
It can only be 100% accurate if it has GPS constantly switched on and connected to a satellite. This would wipe out your battery in ~4 hours
If you try driving using Android Auto/Apple Carplay and check the timeline afterwards it will be perfect because under that usage GPS is constantly active
If you do want to get a record of all of the places that you go to then the simple fix is to open Maps when you get there and let it properly register your location
If you also want all of your journeys accurately mapped then you need maps open constantly!
Maybe I'm just expecting too much of it. If you try driving using Android Auto/Apple Carplay and check the timeline afterwards it will be perfect because under that usage GPS is constantly active
If you do want to get a record of all of the places that you go to then the simple fix is to open Maps when you get there and let it properly register your location
If you also want all of your journeys accurately mapped then you need maps open constantly!
The general complaint on the interweb seems to be that a few years ago it was brilliantly accurate, and showed a realistic picture of where you had been, which streets you walked down, where you drove, but now it's just a bunch of points on a map with straight lines drawn between them.
In the old days of android there were a lot more liberties taken with privacy and personal data. There used to be entire libraries and companies whose purpose was to hoover up as much data as they can even if they don't really have a use of it. Now things are a bit more strict and things aren't allowed to run in the background continuously without the user being informed. Google itself may be a bit hypocritical on this point but normal apps have had more restrictions placed on them over the years.
donkmeister said:
Works fine for me.
Biggest two uses are:
1) Identifying where I was when a mysterious transaction took place on my cc, then realising it was some random food vendor.
2) Identifying where I was when doing my expenses claims.
That's really quite boring but it works for me.
I wish I could get that level of accuracy from mine!Biggest two uses are:
1) Identifying where I was when a mysterious transaction took place on my cc, then realising it was some random food vendor.
2) Identifying where I was when doing my expenses claims.
That's really quite boring but it works for me.
Thursday for example:
It shows me starting the day at 9am at a Catholic Church 5 miles from my house… then it shows me at home all day until 4pm, then just says ‘MISSING VISIT’ from 4pm until 10pm, with a bunch of zigzag lines covering the whole city centre.
The reality is that I was at home all day until 3:45pm, certainly nowhere near a Catholic Church at 9am… then got the train into the city, visited a restaurant and a couple of bars, then got the train home about 10:10pm. It hasn’t got a clue that I visited any venues during the 4-10pm period.
I ran some errands today, visited about 5 different shops, quite far apart. It managed to get 2 out of the 5 correct.
Griffith4ever said:
Thanks, I didn’t see that thread.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff