Google Latitude Not Updating

I, like many others, noticed a an issue with Google Latitude (Google Maps) not updating my or others current position anymore.  This started happening to me just after my HTC Incredible updated to Android 2.3.3. My wife's Motorola Droid 2 also updated to Android 2.3.3 recently and has the same issue.  I searched and searched and found old problems with Google Maps not updating, but the answers and suggestions didn't really apply to me. The answer to the cause of the problem was found in a Google Mobile support forum under the heading "Google Maps 5.10 for Android is here!"

The cause of this new issue is Google. Here is a post by Google employee Ken N.:

I know many of you are disappointed with the removal of the experimental "real-time" feature, I wanted to give some explanation. We originally hoped it would help in situations where you want to see fresher location updates, but alas it never quite worked. In fact, we found occasions where it actually did the wrong thing—implied an older location was fresher than it was. Keeping the feature in place made it harder to direct our engineering efforts toward improving the overall experience.

As a result, we decided to remove the feature and instead focus on improving location reporting and freshness across the board. I'm sorry the feature didn't work out, we're disappointed too.

As for earlier versions—the real-time feature worked server-side, so I'm afraid reverting to an earlier version of GMM won't restore the functionality.

 So the reason our positions don't update like they once did is Google did it. Ugh, what a disappointment.  I use Google Maps and the Latitude feature at least 3 days a week for tracking my wife on her way to meet me to do a kid exchange. Sometimes she will be home before I leave for work, sometimes she will meet me at my work and take our little one back home with her. I can quickly figure out if I should wait 5 extra minutes at home or take our child to work with me just by opening Google Latitude.  The other reason to use Google Latitude is to quickly check on our teenage child and make sure he is where he said he would be...aka Digital Parenting.

I know that Latitude could be used for bad things and sneaky things, but that is not the intention of many people.  The thread about Google maps 5.10 has many instances of legitimate uses for Google Latitude, like the way my family uses it.


Another Google Employee, Teresa W., commented this:

The real-time updating feature on Latitude was removed. We realize that this is a popular feature, and you want to see fresher location updates for your friends, but it wasn't working as well as we'd hoped. We're going to revise upon that technology to improve location updating for all users.

I say please give the users back your real-time updating that "wasn't working as well as we'd hoped," and leave it on until you finish "revising upon that technology to improve location updating for all users."

What to do in the meantime....Well there are some paid apps that will make your location update more frequently, but I not big on paid apps that don't have a free trial or a lite version. If you want to drop $3 on Latify, go ahead and try it, but it seems that Latify is being pushed by the same person on forums all across the web. You can install a GPS dependent program for locating lost phones, like the Mobile Recovery app included in the cost of the Verizon Wireless Total Equipment Coverage Insurance (mymobilerecovery.com) or Lookout  Mobile Security (mylookout.com), but these are not intended for real-time tracking, can eat-up batter life, and over usage of these location services is not part of the TOS.

Google, please turn on the old Latitude real-time updates until the new version is ready for the public.  Thanks.