Google to Discontinue Trusted Contacts App That Lets You Find Loved Ones' Location During Emergency
Google will discontinue the emergency location sharing app Trusted Contacts in December and has already taken it off Google Play Store.
The company advised existing users that the app won't be supported after December 1, 2020. So if they have a trusted contacts page, it's best to download them before that date.
Trusted Contacts is used as a way for people to check in on loved ones during an emergency. With it off the Play Store, Google directed users to use the same features in Google Maps.
The Verge said the shift was quite shameful, because while the features are similar, Trusted Contacts offers more helpful ones.
Maps requires proactive broadcast of a person's location, unlike Trusted Contacts that can help a user find family users even if they don't respond. This can be helpful if they're unconscious or in danger.
If someone tries to reach out to a user through the app, they can respond to let others know they are fine.
If the user doesn't respond, the app will share that person's last known location so people can send for help. It makes reassuring loved ones and getting help for those in danger an easier process.
Also unlike Maps, Trusted Contacts was focused more on location sharing than the social elements to it, noted 9 to 5 Google. It also warns a person's loved one if they feel like they are in danger.
Google has made it a part of their strategy to fold apps and features together, but the alternative that Maps offers may prove to be less valuable.
There may be a decline in the use of Trusted Contacts but those who were counting on it may not shift to Maps after all. They'll try to find something with more similar features instead.
According to Gadgets 360, the move to pull the plug on it was part of a series of measures for Google to optimize its products and services.
Trusted Contacts follows two other location sharing apps, Google Latitude and Google+ Location Sharing. Both have also been scrapped earlier, as noted by End Gadget.
Developing Trusted Contacts
The app was first made exclusively for Android users through the Play Store. After some upgrades, a year later, it was made available for iOS users through the App Store.
After its development, the app was integrated with Google Maps and allowed various other features.
Some examples of the features that came along the way are customized timeouts and permanent location sharing.
People made it easy to track loved ones in case of emergencies by adding them through their email address.
But as years went by, Trusted Contacts lost the interest of users.
Google Plans to Halt Hangouts
Also part of the plan to optimize products, Google is also planning to kill Hangouts. It recently announced that users will have to shift from Hangouts to Google Chat.
Chat is now a part of the Google Workspace, previously known as G Suite.
Hangout will likely be killed off by sometime next year.
With this, users will likely shift to Workspace's Google Meet to hold video calls starting November.
Support for Hangouts will officially end next year.
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