Ask away, partner

Outft is a location-sharing app for families and their Buds. Honchos (parents) see where their kids are on a live map and get a quiet heads-up when they arrive at places or leave. Kids and teens get their own side: a map of their Buds, private Outfts for their crews, and ghost mode. Locations are end-to-end encrypted, there are no ads, and we never sell or share your data.

Not yet. Outft is coming soon to iPhone and Android. Get early access and we'll email you once, on the day it's out.

Outft is coming to iPhone (iOS 17 or later) and Android on the same day, so families with both kinds of phones are covered from the start.

• A Honcho is a parent or legal guardian.
• The Head Honcho is the adult who runs the family account. Each family has one.
• Buds are people you have connected with on Outft. You only become Buds in person or with a link you send.
• An Outft is a private list of Buds you make, like your crew or your team. It sets what that list can see.
• My Family is you and your Honchos or kids.

• Near Me: a map of you and the people near you.
• Family: your family on a map.
• The Lowdown: check-ins and updates, plus a short spoken update.
• Outfts: your Buds, sorted into your Outfts.
• Me: your profile, privacy, safety and settings.

The bell at the top right shows anything new for you.

Download Outft, sign in, and choose to set up a family. You become the Head Honcho. Then invite your teens and another parent from the Family tab, and pick the places you want alerts for.

Teens 13 to 17 download Outft on their own phone, sign up and accept the invite you sent them. They can also sign up on their own and join your family later.

Yes. Your location comes from the phone you carry, so each kid needs their own phone with Outft signed in. If someone has more than one phone, one of them is their "location phone".

Outft is launching for families in the United States. Our maps and safety alerts are made for the US.

Each phone works out where it is and sends that to the people it shares with, who see it as a pin on a map. The app keeps doing this in the background: more often while the phone is moving, less while it sits still. Most apps also let you save places, like home or school, and give you a heads-up when someone arrives or leaves.

On Outft: your phone locks each update with end-to-end encryption before it leaves, so only the people you chose can see it. How that works.

It depends on where the phone is. Outdoors with a clear view of the sky, GPS usually puts it close to the right spot. Indoors, between tall buildings or underground, the phone leans on Wi-Fi networks and cell towers instead, which can be off by a building or a block, sometimes more. A good app shows when it's unsure instead of a pin that looks exact.

On Outft: when a phone only knows roughly where it is, you see a soft circle instead of a sharp pin.

Usually the phone only had a rough fix (indoors or with a weak signal), or the pin is an old one that hasn't been replaced yet. Phones also hold apps back to save battery, so an app may keep showing the last place it heard about as if it were current. More on why location apps go wrong.

On Outft: every pin says how fresh it is, old pins fade, and when a phone can't be reached, the map says so.

The usual reasons:

• the phone is off, out of battery or has no signal
• location is turned off, or the app's location permission was changed
• the phone is saving battery (Low Power Mode or a battery saver) and holding apps back
• a phone setting stopped the app from running in the background

On Outft: your map says what happened instead of showing an old pin as if it were current, and Me › Location health shows anything on your own phone that's holding updates back.

It uses some, and how much depends on how the app is built. GPS takes the most power, so well-built apps use it while you're moving and lean on cheaper signals, like Wi-Fi and the phone's motion sensors, the rest of the time. An app that keeps GPS running all day drains a phone fast.

On Outft: it checks often while you're moving and mostly rests while you're still. More on Outft and battery.

Location sharing shows where someone is, and both people know it's on. Monitoring apps go further: depending on the app, they can read texts, see browsing, track screen time or block apps. They answer different worries, and some families use both.

On Outft: Outft is location sharing only. It never reads messages, browsing or other apps, and a Honcho can't see what a kid shares only with their Buds.

Not with Outft. Your kid always knows they're sharing with you, can see exactly what you can see, and can see when you last looked. We built it that way on purpose: a kid who finds out they were tracked in secret has every reason to stop trusting it and look for a way around it. Sharing you agree on together is sharing that lasts.

There's no set age. Many families start when a kid gets their first phone or starts going places on their own, like walking to school, practice or a Bud's house. What matters more than age is that your kid understands what's shared and why, and that it changes as they grow.

On Outft: anyone 13 or older can sign up. Kids under 13 need a parent or legal guardian to set up their account, and accounts for under-13s are coming soon.

• Say why: safety and fewer "where are you?" texts, not catching them out.
• Agree on what you'll see and when you'll check.
• Ask what would make it feel fair to them, like time off the map with their Buds or knowing when you looked.
• Come back to it as they get older and earn more freedom.

Why teens push back, and what helps.

On Outft: your kid can open Me › What my Honchos see and go through the list with you.

The usual complaint is feeling watched rather than sharing: parents see everything, teens can't tell what's seen or when, and there's no room to be off the map with their own crew. More in our guide for parents of teens.

On Outft: kids get their own side, with a map of their Buds, private Outfts and ghost mode for a break from Buds. Ghost mode never hides a kid from their Honchos, and the app tells them so.

It can make sharing feel fairer, and it's handy for kids too, like seeing that you're on your way to pick them up. Decide it together, the same way you decide what your kid shares.

On Outft: whatever you choose, your kid can always see what each Honcho can see of them and when each one last looked.

A geofence is an invisible boundary around a place, like home or school. When the phone crosses it, the app sends a heads-up such as "arrived at school" or "left home". Depending on the app, that check happens on the phone or on the company's servers.

On Outft: the check runs on your kid's phone, so our server never learns where your places are. How Outft's alerts work.

Precise location is the phone's best guess at exactly where you are. Approximate location is a rough area, like a neighborhood. Both iPhone and Android let you give an app only your approximate location, and some apps let you choose what each person sees.

On Outft: you pick Exact or Neighborhood for each Bud or Outft, and Neighborhood is worked out on your phone. Exact and Neighborhood.

Some have. Location data is worth money to data brokers and advertisers, and reporters have found apps, including a family locator, selling it. Read an app's privacy policy and its App Store or Google Play privacy label, and ask how it makes money: an app that's free and shows ads is paid for somehow. What's been reported, with sources.

On Outft: we never sell or share your data, and your location is end-to-end encrypted, so we couldn't read it if we wanted to. We'll make money from family subscriptions, never ads.

• Privacy: is location end-to-end encrypted, and does the company promise never to sell it?
• Fairness to kids: can your kid see what you see and when you looked?
• Honest freshness: does the map say how old a location is, or show old pins as if they were current?
• Battery: does it go easy on phones that are sitting still?
• Cost: what's free, and what costs money?
• Both kinds of phones: does it work on iPhone and Android?

On Outft: we built it around this list. What is Outft?

On the Family tab, tap Add and choose who to invite. Outft writes an invite text that you send from your own Messages app, so the phone number never reaches us. The invite works for 7 days. When they accept, you confirm it's really them before they join.

A text can be forwarded to the wrong person. Nobody joins your family until a Honcho sees their name and photo and confirms it's them. Tapping "Not them" cancels the invite.

Up to 2 Honchos and 5 kids.

Yes. The Head Honcho invites the second parent. For your kids' safety, both Honchos are equal: they see the same location and alerts and can answer the same approvals. Only the Head Honcho adds or removes Honchos.

On iPhone, go to Me › Honchos. Next to another Honcho, the Head Honcho can tap Options, then Make Head Honcho (it moves when they accept) or Remove as Honcho. Any other Honcho can tap Step down as Honcho there. Once someone stops being a Honcho, they no longer see your kids as a Honcho.

For each kid they're a Honcho of:

• where they are, even when they're in ghost mode
• when they arrive at or leave the family's saved places
• whether they're walking, biking or in a car
• where they've been lately, never further back than the kid's history choice (none, 24 hours or 7 days)
• a low-battery badge on their pin
• drive reports, if driving is switched on for them
• the names of their Buds, but never where their Buds are
• safety alerts, like an adult asking to be their Bud

Your kid can see this same list anytime in Me › What my Honchos see.

• where your kid's Buds are
• check-ins and photos your kid shares only with Buds
• pokes between your kid and their Buds
• the Outfts your kid made
• whether your kid has ghost mode on for their Buds

Yes. Your kid can see when each Honcho last looked at their location and how many times today. Our server records each look, so it can't be hidden, and keeps the record for 30 days.

Save a place, like home or school, and choose who it's for. Your kid's phone notices when they get there or leave and tells you, end-to-end encrypted, so our server never learns where the place is. Each Honcho picks whether to hear about arrivals, departures or both, and on which days and at what times. Each person can have up to 10 saved places. If a kid's phone can't check (for example, location is off), you see that instead of silence.

Your kid can say where they're going before they leave: they tap their own pin, then Heading to…, and pick a place or type one. Their family sees it, so a departure alert comes with where they said they're going. It's not a request for permission, and nothing happens if they're late.

It's off until it's switched on for a driver, and the driver is always told. It counts only drives where they're the driver: in a car they marked as theirs, or when they tap "I was driving". Honchos see distance, top speed, hard braking, rapid starts and going over a speed they choose, for each drive and in a weekly summary. Only the driver and their Honchos see it, end-to-end encrypted.

No. A ride in someone else's car doesn't count as your kid's driving unless they tap "I was driving".

Your map says what happened instead of showing an old pin as if it were current, for example "Location is turned off" or that the phone may have turned off and what its battery was. Old pins fade and show how long ago they were updated.

Ghost mode hides your kid from their Buds, never from their Honchos, and the app tells them so. They can still turn location off in their phone's settings or switch the phone off. If they do, your map shows that instead of an old pin.

Go to Me › My Family, find your kid and tap Mark phone as lost. Outft signs out on that phone right away. Your kid signs back in on their new phone.

No notifications for low battery. A low-battery badge shows on your kid's pin when their battery is under 15%.

SOS (Me › SOS) sends an alert with your location to your Honchos and to up to 2 Buds who agreed to be your SOS contacts. Without a data connection, it waits and sends once the phone is back online. Outft can also open a ready-made text to numbers you chose, which you send yourself. A text isn't end-to-end encrypted. SOS doesn't contact emergency services: in an emergency, call 911.

No. They can see where you are and the other things listed in Me › What my Honchos see, which you can open anytime. They never see where your Buds are, check-ins you share only with Buds, or your pokes with Buds.

Yes. Me › What my Honchos see shows when each Honcho last checked and how many times today.

No. Ghost mode hides you from your Buds, never from your Honchos. When you turn it on, the app says "Hidden from Buds. Your Honchos can still see your location."

If you're 13 or older, you can sign up yourself. Kids under 13 need a parent or legal guardian to set up their account, and accounts for under-13s are coming soon.

To keep the right protections for your age. Your phone works out your age group (under 13, 13–15, 16–17 or adult) and, for kids, the month you turn 18. Only those leave your phone. Your birthday is never sent or stored.

• 13: Buds your own age no longer need a Honcho's OK.
• 16: changing your @handle no longer needs a Honcho's OK.
• 18: your Honcho links end on the 1st of the month you turn 18. You keep your account and your Buds.

The 13 and 16 changes happen on the 1st of the month after your birthday month.

Never. Kids and teens never see a price or a plan anywhere in Outft.

• Under 13: yes, a Honcho approves every Bud.
• 13 to 17: Buds your own age don't need approval.
• An adult always needs your Honcho's OK before they can be your Bud. If you're 13 to 17 and not in a family on Outft, you can't add adults as Buds.

No. Nothing in Outft is public. There's no search by name or @handle and no "people you may know". Someone can only become your Bud if you show them your QR code, give them your code, or send them a link.

They see check-ins you share with family. Check-ins you send only to Buds, and pokes between you and your Buds, stay between you. If you're under 13, your check-ins go to your family.

Yes, once every 30 days. If you're under 16 and have a Honcho, a Honcho OKs the new one first. Your Buds and family see the change in the Lowdown.

No. Nobody gets a notification. Buds see "No location since" and the time, the same words they'd see if your phone were off or had no signal.

No. If drive reports are switched on for you, you're always told.

Buds are people you have connected with on Outft. Becoming Buds doesn't share your location: you choose that separately for each Outft.

In Me › Add a Bud: show your QR code or scan theirs, type their code, or send a link. A link works once, within 24 hours. You can have up to 200 Buds.

To keep strangers out. There's no search by name or @handle, no "people you may know" and no suggestions based on where you are. You add people you actually know.

Nothing at first. Buds see your location only when you put them in one of your Outfts, at the level you set for that Outft.

A private list of up to 8 Buds that you make, like your crew or your team. Each Outft is set to Exact, Neighborhood or Doesn't see. If a Bud is in more than one of your Outfts, the most exact setting wins. Your Outfts live only on your phone: nobody is told which Outfts they're in. You can have up to 10.

Exact shows your pin where you are. Neighborhood shows only a neighborhood-sized area, worked out on your phone. If you switch someone from Exact to Neighborhood, their map shows an area instead of a pin, and nobody is notified.

Ghost mode pauses your location for Buds: everyone, one Outft or one person. Set a timer (1 hour, 3 hours, until tomorrow morning) or leave it on until you turn it off. Nobody is told, and nothing is deleted: turning it off puts everything back the way it was. A kid's Honchos can still see them, and the app always says so.

Open the Bud on the Outfts tab, tap ⋮, and remove them. It's silent: they aren't told.

Tap their pin or name to open their card, then scroll to Report or Block at the bottom. Blocking is instant and silent, and it stops sharing both ways. When you report something, it's hidden from you right away and our team reviews it. A report from a well-established account hides it from everyone while we review.

A quick message like Love you or Charge your phone. Press and hold someone's pin on the map, then slide to a poke and let go.

Send a song from someone's pin. They hear a 15-second preview and can open the whole song in their own music app. Kids under 13 get the clean version of a song, or none.

On iPhone: if you and a Bud both turn it on, you get a heads-up when you're close to each other, at most once every 3 hours.

A check-in shares where you are as a post, with a photo or short video if you like, and you pick who sees it. Hidden location data is stripped from photos on your phone before they're encrypted. Check-ins show up in the Lowdown.

Never. No ads, no ad networks, no data brokers, no ad tracking IDs and no analytics companies. We'll make money from family subscriptions, never from your data.

No. Your location is end-to-end encrypted on your phone for the people you share with, using MLS, an open standard for group encryption. Our servers pass along scrambled data they can't read. Maps are drawn on your phone, so the streets you look at aren't sent to us either.

Your location is locked on your phone and can only be unlocked on the phones of the people you chose. The keys never leave those phones. When you stop sharing with someone, the keys change, so they can't read anything new.

• your name, @handle, age group (never your birthday) and the color or photo you chose
• a fingerprint of the email or Google account you sign in with, never the address itself
• the devices you're signed in on
• who your Buds and family are, so updates reach the right people
• when people looked at your location (kept 30 days)
• your location, only as scrambled data we can't read

Your photo is encrypted too. Me › Your data shows the full list in plain words.

Me › Who can see me lists every person who can see your location and exactly what they see. You can stop sharing with anyone there in one tap. Honchos are listed separately.

You choose: none, 24 hours (the default) or 7 days, in Me › Who can see me › Keep my location history. Your location is kept as scrambled data we can't read, then deleted from our servers. Pick a shorter time and what's already stored is cut back right away. Outft never keeps location longer than 7 days, on any plan.

Before a photo leaves your phone, Outft strips its hidden location data and encrypts it. We store only scrambled files we can't open.

If you sign in with email, we keep only a fingerprint of the address, never the address itself. Sign-in codes go out through our email provider. Only our early-access list keeps addresses, sealed, so we can send the launch email. How we handle your email

Yes. Go to Me › Your data › Download my data. Teens download their own. A parent can download the data of a kid under 13.

Yes. Turn on the lock in Me: Face ID on iPhone, your phone's screen lock on Android. It asks after you've been away from the app, and before any change that would show more of you. Only you can turn it on.

We can only hand over what we have, and we don't have anyone's location, photos or check-ins in a form we can read.

No. There are no analytics, ads, chat widgets or outside fonts. Our hosting provider puts Cloudflare in front of the site. Cloudflare sees your IP address and sets one bot-protection cookie that lasts 30 minutes. We don't see either.

Please email security@jointheoutft.com. Our security page explains what's in scope and what we promise in return.

The Lowdown tab is a feed of check-ins and updates from your family and Buds. Tap Give me the Lowdown at the top to hear a short spoken update instead of scrolling.

Check-ins people share with you, plus updates like a new Bud, an @handle change, "Heading to…", a phone going quiet or coming back, driving milestones, and safety and sky posts you've turned on. Automatic updates go to family only. For kids under 13, everything goes to family only.

You pick who sees each check-in. Automatic updates about you go to your family only. Only you see who liked your post.

Give me the Lowdown reads a short update aloud. Your phone makes it from what it already has, and nothing is sent to us to make it. On iPhone, the voices are made on the phone too. For Honchos, it covers where their kids are.

Safety posts from public US alerts: wildfires, weather warnings and earthquakes near you. Your phone downloads the public alerts and checks them against where you are, so we never get your location to do it. They're on by default, and you can turn each one off in Me › Lowdown. You can share a fire or quake post with your family.

Northern lights, full moons and eclipses, meteor showers and shooting stars that you can see from where you are. They're off until you turn them on in Me › Lowdown.

Just for fun: real Bigfoot sighting reports, facts only. It's off until you turn it on in Me › Lowdown. Kids under 13 need a Honcho to turn it on for them.

In Me › Lowdown, switch off the kinds you don't want.

To put you on the maps of the Buds and family you choose, and to tell your Honchos when you arrive or leave places. Turning location on doesn't share it with anyone by itself: you choose who sees you.

So arrivals, departures and your spot on others' maps keep working when Outft is closed (on Android it's called "Allow all the time"). Outft asks for While Using first, and you can switch later in Me › Location health. With While Using, you only update while Outft is open.

Without it, your phone only knows roughly where you are, and arrivals can be missed. Precise location on your phone doesn't mean Buds see you exactly: that's a separate choice for each Outft.

To save battery. Outft checks your location often only while you're moving, and motion tells it when you are. It also lets your pin show whether you're walking, biking or in a car.

For arrival and departure alerts, SOS, pokes and requests from Buds. Without notifications, safety alerts can't reach you.

To take your profile photo, take check-in photos and videos, and scan Outft QR codes.

No. When you invite someone or choose SOS numbers, you pick one contact at a time in your phone's own picker. Outft uses only the number you picked, and your contacts are never uploaded. For photos, Outft sees only the ones you choose.

No. Outft doesn't ask for the microphone or Bluetooth, and it never asks to track you for ads.

Outft still works, with less. Me › Location health shows each setting, what it limits, and a button to fix it. Outft never nags you with notifications about these.

Outft is built to go easy on batteries. On iPhone, it updates about every 20 seconds while you're driving, about every minute while walking, and when you move after sitting still. While you're still, it mostly rests.

A pin updated in the last couple of minutes shows as normal. After that it says how old it is. After 15 minutes the pin fades, and after a day it says "Yesterday". When a phone only knows roughly where it is, you see a soft circle instead of a sharp pin.

That person's location hasn't updated since that time. For Buds, the words are the same whatever the reason (ghost mode, a phone that's off, no signal or location turned off), so nobody can tell which. A kid's Honchos see the reason.

It can. Your phone may hold back updates while it's saving battery. Me › Location health tells you when that's happening.

Partly. When you're offline, Outft says so and keeps your locations on your phone for up to 7 days, then sends them when you reconnect. Your map keeps the last pins it had for up to a day. SOS can also go out as a text.

Because they would learn which streets you look at. Outft draws its own maps on your phone. A rough map of the country comes from our own servers, and detailed street maps download to your phone in the background, on Wi-Fi by default.

Arrivals and departures, SOS, pokes, tunes, Bud nearby, safety posts and family invite reminders. You can switch each kind off in Me › Notifications, and arrival alerts are set place by place. SOS and other safety alerts can't be switched off. Non-urgent notifications wait during quiet hours, 10 pm to 7 am (9 pm for kids under 13).

Yes. Turn on Private previews in Me › Notifications, and notifications say only "Something new in Outft." An SOS always shows in full.

No. The push that wakes your phone carries no message. Outft writes the words on your phone.

You can sign in on more than one, but only one is your "location phone": it shares your location and shows your Buds'. To switch, go to Me › Devices on the new phone and tap Use this phone for my location. If you're a kid, your Honchos are told when you switch.

Miles unless your phone is set to a kilometer region. Change it in Me › Units. The setting stays on your phone.

With a code we email you, or with your Google account. There are no passwords.

A password can be guessed, reused or leaked. Email codes expire in 10 minutes and work once.

That you signed in to Outft. We ask Google only for an account ID, never your name, email or photo, and we keep only a fingerprint of that ID.

Install Outft on the new phone and sign in. Then go to Me › Devices and tap Use this phone for my location. Remove the old phone from the list if you don't have it anymore.

Me › Devices lists every device signed in to your account and which one is your location phone. You can rename or remove any of them, or sign out of all the others. A new device gets a "New" label. When a phone is linked to a kid's account, their Honchos are told.

Go to Me › Profile. Your photo is encrypted on your phone, and only your Buds and family can see it. You can change your @handle once every 30 days.

Go to Me › Profile › Delete account. Your account and everything linked to it are removed from our servers right away, and our backups drop it within 30 days. We keep the parental consent record, because the law requires it. If you're the only Honcho of a kid in your family, add another Honcho first, so no kid is left without one.

Yes. Outft is free to download, and while we launch, everything in it is free.

Later, parents will be able to pay for Family Premium, which adds extras for Honchos. The safety basics stay free for every family: linking to your kids, live location, SOS, approvals and safety alerts. You'll see the price in the app before you pay anything.

Never. Kids and teens never see a price or a plan.

One adult, the Head Honcho, for the whole family: up to 2 Honchos and 5 kids. A second Honcho is covered and never asked to pay again.

A plan bought in the App Store is cancelled in your Apple account's subscription settings, and Apple handles refunds. We never see your card.

Open the link that came with your code, or go to jointheoutft.com/redeem. Codes can be redeemed once Family Premium is switched on.

In the app, go to Me › Get help. A real person on the Outft team answers in a chat. You can choose to attach your phone's settings, never your location. Chats are deleted 90 days after they're closed.

If you think they're in danger, call 911 first. Then check their pin: it says why it may be out of date. You can also tap Can't find someone? in Me › Get help to reach us quickly.

Me › Send feedback. Tell us what's working and what isn't. If you want an answer, say so, and we'll reply.

Email hello@jointheoutft.com. Once you have the app, Me › Get help is the fastest way.