Google killed Maps Timeline, so I self-hosted a better one

www.androidauthority.com

26 comments

Misleading as fuck. The Timeline feature never went away - it's just device-only.
- There's a good chunk of us who used it with the web, and they're adding that to the vast Google graveyard. That in and of itself makes me excited to see an alternative because Google will kill the app version on a whim too.
  
  The device only was for privacy. When the data was stored in the cloud, the government had unrestricted access. By making it device only they need to get your device to get that data.
  
  It never went away. It's still a feature. It's just stored locally on your device. Thats it.
- Google also accidentally deleted a random amount of user's timeline data if you didn't immediately catch it and restore from back up last March before the affected backups were overwritten. If you didn't keep a close enough watch on your timeline to know that that happened, everything before ~Feb 2025 is gone now.
  Ask me how I know. Yes I kept up on permissions. Yes I had backups on. No I didn't have a new device. I even have dozens of available gigabytes of paid storage on Google One.
  I'm sure it will only get more stable due to maps and timeline being revenue generators that encourage investment.
  
  I recorded data since 2013. I loved checking out previous vacation trip locations or just randomly browsing through where I've been. All gone now.
  Did everything Google recommended but they just deleted it and there's no way to get it back.
  I really wish I would've made an offline backup or something before.
- What does device-only mean in this context? That it's only stored on your phone?
  
  Because of various privacy legislation, and people not wanting Google to track them as much, they stopped syncing the data to Google servers. As someone who's worked at big tech companies, my guess would be that storing so many people's location history was flagged as an issue during a privacy audit.
  It's entirely local now. You can enable encrypted backups and back up the data, however you can really only have the data on one device now, and the web version is gone.
  
  It's no longer accessible from a desktop, only from the Google Maps app.
  
  What else could that possibly mean?
- Thanks for clarifying, I was worried for a second.
- It requires drill down now and doesn't list visits on the location itself which is a huge negative.
There is also
https://dawarich.app/
But I could never get it to ingest any data from the recc Android apps (this is probably a me problem, though, Linux Unplugged crew are using it).
I tried both the OwnTracks server and Dawarich, and had problems using them with my reverse proxy (Caddy), which I didn't manage to fix. Eventually, I installed the Nextcloud app Phonetrack, and I've been using it for months with the OwnTracks client: it works fine, it can also export GPX files, which I can use to tag pictures shot with my camera, using Darktable. I recommend this solution if you are already using Nextcloud!
How exactly does it work from your phone's perspective? Does it hook into Google Play Services location data? Do you need to install a different low-level application that replicates that functionality? (If so, what's the battery life impact like?) Does it need a foregrounded app?
I'm really interested in this, because like the author I'm really upset at Google killing yet another incredibly useful feature. But the article is a little light on details.
- It (theoretically) works without PlayServices. I'm on CalyxOS with MicroG enabled and while I was testing OwnTracks I think MicroG was using the Gplay Location services or something? I've since turned something off in MicroG location settings that was phoning home to Google and GPS is pretty bad now, not sure if OwnTracks would still be usable.
  I think the official app tries to not be killed by Android woth the usual tricks (permanent notification, disabling battery optimisation):
  https://f-droid.org/packages/org.owntracks.android
  You can (theoretically) control how often locations are tracked and sent but for me was using the location service constantly and draining battery quite a bit.
  
  the official app tries to not be killed by Android woth the usual tricks (permanent notification, disabling battery optimisation)
  …
  You can (theoretically) control how often locations are tracked and sent but for me was using the location service constantly and draining battery quite a bit.
  Ah. Those are exactly what I was worried about. It's not able to just happen entirely in the background the same way Google's feature does, then? Kind of automagically?
- The article said there's a phone companion app
  
  But not exactly how the app works. If it's a Strava-like app you have to remember to run in the foreground, the value is a lot lower to me than something that either uses or replicates GPS' automatic background behaviour.

26 comments