Live Location

Share your live location with dispatch and shippers while you're driving an order.

When you start a task group, the app streams your live location back to chrt so dispatch and the shipper can see where you are on the map. This page covers how that works, what permission you need to grant, what runs in the background, and the Android-specific offline buffering behavior.

Before you start

  • You signed in to the driver app and granted location permission on first launch. If you skipped it, the Share Location with Dispatch toggle in Settings prompts again when you turn it on.
  • For full functionality, the app needs Always location permission (iOS) or Allow all the time (Android). Without background grant, location only flows while the app is the foreground app — which means dispatch loses your position the moment you switch apps or lock the screen.

How live location works

Live location is opt-in per driver via the Share Location with Dispatch toggle in Settings. When on:

  • Your device sends location updates to chrt while the app is running.
  • The updates appear on the order map for the active task group, on the driver map for your org’s dispatchers, and on the public tracking page if the shipper has shared it.
  • The app only streams location while you have an order in progress and sharing is on — it does not run a background GPS pull when you’re idle off-shift.

1. Grant Always / Allow all the time

iOS and Android both make background location a two-step grant.

  1. On first launch, iOS asks for While Using the App. Tap Allow. This is enough for the toggle to turn on, but it isn’t enough for background tracking.
  2. The first time you enable Share Location with Dispatch with only While Using, the app prompts again for Always Allow. Tap Change to Always Allow to escalate.
  3. iOS may also ask for Precise Location — say yes. The app needs precise (not approximate) accuracy for delivery routing. The location-sharing row in Settings warns you if precise is off and offers an Enable action.

If you ever change your mind and deny Always, the Settings card shows Location Permission: While Using App with a Settings button to jump to the iOS Settings app.

  1. On first launch, Android asks for While using the app. Tap Allow.
  2. The app then asks for Allow all the time as a separate prompt. On Android 11 and newer, this opens a system settings screen — you have to pick Allow all the time explicitly. The app cannot grant this in a single tap on modern Android; that’s an OS-level protection.
  3. Android may also surface a precise-vs-approximate choice. Pick precise.

If background is denied, the offline banner doesn’t apply — you’ll just stop streaming as soon as the app isn’t in foreground.

2. Turn on Share Location with Dispatch

Open the Settings tab and toggle Share Location with Dispatch on.

  • If permission is granted and precise location is on, the toggle flips and location starts streaming for any in-progress order.
  • If permission is denied or accuracy is approximate, the app shows a toast / inline status explaining what’s wrong and won’t enable the toggle.

The card under the toggle shows the last reported coordinate and how long ago you were seen — useful for confirming the stream is alive before you hit the road.

3. Foreground vs background

ScenarioBehavior
App in foreground (you’re looking at it)Location streams normally.
App in background but recent (you switched apps)iOS / Android keep streaming via the foreground service / background-location entitlement. iOS shows the blue location indicator in the status bar while this is active.
Phone locked, app suspendedContinues streaming for the active task group as long as Always / Allow all the time is granted. iOS shows the blue indicator briefly when it polls.
App force-quitStreaming stops until you reopen the app.

Force-quitting the app (swiping it off the recents list on iOS, or swiping away on Android) cuts the background location service. If you meant to leave it running, just lock the phone instead of swiping the app away.

Battery considerations

Live location streaming uses GPS, which costs battery. To minimize impact:

  • Stop sharing when you’re off shift. Toggle Share Location with Dispatch off in Settings. The toggle is per-driver and is the cleanest way to stop the stream cold.
  • Don’t leave the app force-quit and re-opened constantly. The first GPS lock after a cold start is the most expensive — leave the app backgrounded between stops instead of swiping it away.
  • Plug in for long-haul drives. This is mobile dispatch reality, but worth saying — most drivers using chrt are charging while they drive.
  • iOS Low Power Mode reduces background work. Streaming will still function but updates may come less frequently. Same on Android Battery Saver mode.

Android: offline location buffering

When you’re driving an order on Android and you lose signal, the app keeps GPS samples locally instead of dropping them. Once you reconnect, buffered samples flush to the API. The result is that dispatch sees a gap-then-flush on the map rather than a flat-line.

  • The buffer is durable for the current trip — it survives the app being backgrounded but is meant for trip-scale gaps, not multi-day outages.
  • If the app is force-quit or the device reboots, the buffer is best-effort and may be partial after recovery.

iOS does not buffer offline location updates today. If you lose signal on iOS, that gap will show as missing positions until you reconnect; the positions during the outage are not recovered after the fact.

How to know it worked

  • Settings card shows Location Permission: Always (iOS) or Allow all the time (Android) and a recent Last seen timestamp.
  • On the order map in the web app, dispatch sees your blue driver dot moving along the route.
  • The shipper-facing tracking link (if shared) shows the same dot.
  • iOS shows the blue location indicator in the status bar when the app is using location in the background.

If something looks different

  • Permission shows “While Using App” / “Only this time” instead of Always. Tap Settings on the permission row and switch to Always Allow / Allow all the time in the OS Settings app. The app cannot escalate without an OS-level grant.
  • Status says “Approximate”. Tap Enable on the accuracy row, or go to OS Settings > the chrt app > Location and turn on precise.
  • Dispatch says they can’t see your position. Confirm the toggle is on, the permission is Always, and that the task group is In Progress (location only streams for active orders). Pull to refresh the Settings tab — the last-seen row updates every 10 seconds.
  • Battery is draining unexpectedly. Check that you only have sharing on for the current shift. Streaming + screen-on navigation + a hot cell signal is the usual combination. Plug in.
  • Contact hi@chrt.com if location won’t start even with Always granted.