#Location Trails — Where You've Been

A visual breadcrumb trail of everywhere you've wandered. Unlike actual breadcrumbs, these don't get eaten by birds or swept up by janitors.

#What It Does

Location Trails records your movements on an interactive map, drawing a path of where you've been throughout the day. It's background location tracking with a purpose: when you're done exploring a city, visiting a museum, or running errands, you can look back at your route, see where you stopped, and relive the journey — minus the sore feet.

The app identifies visits — places where you stopped for a meaningful amount of time — and names them using Google Places data. That 45-minute stop becomes "Whole Foods Market" instead of "coordinates 37.7749, -122.4194." Routes between stops are snapped to actual roads and sidewalks, so your path looks like a real journey rather than a drunken line drawn by a GPS that's having a bad day.

Your trail data enriches AI conversations too. Ask "Where did I go yesterday?" or "How long was I at the museum?" and the AI can answer from your actual location history. Context that follows you everywhere — literally.

#How to Use It

#iOS App

#Viewing Your Trail

1. Tap the Location tab at the bottom of the screen
2. You'll see an interactive map with your trail drawn as a colored path
3. Blue dots mark your route between stops
4. Markers indicate places where you stopped, labeled with place names and timestamps
5. Pinch to zoom, drag to pan — standard map interactions
6. Tap any visit marker to see details: place name, arrival time, departure time, and duration

#Enabling Background Location

Location Trails only records when background tracking is turned on:

1. Go to Account > Background Location Trails
2. Toggle the switch to On
3. The app will request location permissions if it hasn't already
4. Choose "Always Allow" when prompted — this lets the app track in the background

When enabled, a small location indicator appears in your status bar to remind you that tracking is active. This is iOS being transparent, not the app being nosy.

#Disabling Tracking

1. Go to Account > Background Location Trails
2. Toggle the switch to Off
3. Background tracking stops immediately
4. Your existing trail history is preserved — turning off tracking doesn't delete past data

#Via Chat

Your AI assistant can query your location history:

• "Where did I go today?"
• "How long was I at the grocery store?"
• "Show me everywhere I went last Saturday."
• "What time did I leave the office?"
• "Where did I spend the most time this week?"

The AI draws on your trail data to give time-stamped, place-named answers.

#Tips & Tricks

• Enable trails before a trip to get the full route. Turn on background tracking before you leave the house, and you'll have a complete record of your day's journey when you get back. Great for vacation logs, business travel, or proving to your spouse that you did, in fact, go to the gym.
• The map shows timestamps on visit markers. Tap any stop to see exactly when you arrived and left. Useful for expense reports, time tracking, or settling debates about who was late.
• Trails pair beautifully with beacon data. If you have beacons at indoor locations (a museum, your office), the trail shows your outdoor route while beacons fill in the indoor context. Together, they give a remarkably complete picture of your day.

#Options

#Known Limitations

• Requires "Always Allow" location permission. Background tracking needs the highest permission level. "While Using App" only tracks when ambientChat is in the foreground, which rather defeats the purpose of background tracking.
• Battery impact when active. Background location uses GPS, which consumes battery. The app uses efficient monitoring (significant location changes, not continuous GPS), but you'll still notice some additional drain. If your phone is dying by 3 PM, consider turning trails off when you don't need them.
• GPS accuracy depends on environment. Open sky: excellent. Dense urban canyon: decent. Inside a concrete bunker: don't hold your breath. Indoor locations may show approximate positions or no movement at all.
• Route snapping requires road data. Paths are snapped to known roads and walkways. If you went hiking on an unmapped trail, the path may look approximate or skip sections.
• Visit detection has a time threshold. Very short stops (under a few minutes) may not register as visits. The system is looking for meaningful stops, not traffic lights.
• Location data stays in your secure account. Your trails are stored in your personal cloud storage, protected by the same Firebase security rules as the rest of your data. No one else can see where you've been.

#Version History