Suggestions

:speech_balloon:

A way to POST current location to a custom endpoint periodically

It would be absolutely awesome to be able to use Arc as a source of events for home automation. Since there’s no (and neither will be, as you stated) an API to get [near] real-time location data from the app, another way to implement it would be to allow a user send location data to a custom endpoint with user-defined intervals. The thing I particularly have in mind is Huginn (https://github.com/huginn/huginn) and its “User Location Agent” routine (https://huginnio.herokuapp.com/agents#UserLocationAgent), but integration opportunities are virtually endless.

12 votes

Tagged as Suggestion

Suggested 05 May 2019 by user Anatolii Fetisov

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  • 05 May 2019 Anatolii Fetisov suggested this task

  • 06 May 2019 Matt Greenfield approved this task

  • avatar
    Matt Greenfield

    I’m really intrigued by these kinds of ideas! But the privacy implications need very careful consideration.

    So while I want to jump in and say “yes, let’s make that happen”, I think it needs to be more of a case of thinking through all the angles, and making sure that it can be done in a way that doesn’t leave open any risks for spying / stalking / personal safety risks / privacy invasion / etc.

    06 May 2019
  • avatar
    Anatolii Fetisov

    As I understand it, the main concern here is that some malevolent person could enable this location reporting feature on an actual user’s phone without them knowing.

    What if any change of this setting would require a TouchID/Passcode authorization?
    Plus, maybe, some indication on the UI when this “reporting mode” is active and/or a couple of iOS notifications during the first 24 hours after any change in the configuration.

    06 May 2019
  • avatar
    Matt Greenfield
    Anatolii Fetisov: As I understand it, …

    Yep, that’s exactly my concern.

    I like your suggestions! Requiring Face/Touch/Passcode authentication, and giving UI feedback that the locations are being sent to a remote server seem to me like they would resolve the privacy concerns.

    08 May 2019
  • avatar
    Stephen Bowling

    Another good reference for POSTing location data from the app to a receiver is Overland (https://github.com/aaronpk/Overland-iOS) and Compass (https://github.com/aaronpk/Compass). In addition to home automation/current location, it would be interesting to be able to POST the timeline to capture all activity to an endpoint. Overland does this in batches on a user-defined interval.

    14 May 2019
  • avatar
    Paul

    Another reference for this kind of idea, is OwnTracks which supports MQTT or HTTP https://owntracks.org/

    22 May 2019
  • avatar
    John Barker

    In iOS 13 shortcuts can now be scheduled to run with down-to-the-minute granularity. Perhaps if Arc begins to expose actions/data to Shortcuts, this could be solved by way of simply writing a Shortcut to handle it.

    09 June 2019
  • avatar
    Matt Greenfield

    That’s a very interesting possibility! I’d better log that down somewhere, so it doesn’t get forgotten.

    Perhaps there’s already a feature request for Shortcuts support. If not, I’ll either create one, or log it in my own task tracking system.

    10 June 2019
  • avatar
    Matt Greenfield

    Yep, there’s already a feature request for Shortcuts. So I’ve cross referenced this to there.

    https://changemap.co/bigpaua/arc-app/task/3256-siri-shortcuts/#comment-3945

    10 June 2019
  • avatar
    Patrick

    Yes, this is a must have feature for me as well, I would also consider backing Arc to give this more priority.

    31 December 2020