Alternative to Find My Friends for Emergency Location Service?

Question

I'd like to find a way for family members to be able to view my GPS location in case of an emergency. There are two Apple iOS apps that immediately come to mind -- Find My iPhone and Find My Friends -- but they both have limitations.
Find My iPhone
This is a great app, and I've used it several times. I love the way that it integrates with icloud.com. However, in order to use this app to share my location with family members, I would have to give them my iCloud username and password. They would not only be able to track my location 24/7, but would also have access to other iCloud assets such as email, calendar, and photos. I'm an adult with nothing to hide, but I still have reservations about giving my parents and siblings full access to my iCloud account.
Find My Friends
This app comes very close to what I'm looking for. I could add family members as "friends" in the app and then share my location with them. I like that the app allows you to hide your location. You can choose when you want to make your location available and when you'd rather it remain private.
So, for example, let's say that I'm going on a long trip by myself. I could unhide my location so that my family would know that I made it to my destination safely. Another example would be if I were going hiking by myself in a remote area. In that case I might want to unhide my location so that family could locate me if I fell and got hurt or became incapacitated.
The problem with the hide/unhide setting is that it's completely manual. You have to remember to open the app and toggle the setting. This introduces human error into the equation. What if I forget to unhide my location before going on that hiking trip? Or what if I foget to hide my location after the trip is over? I'd rather there be a better, automated approach to location sharing.
Ideally, I'd like for there to be a way that I could keep my location hidden until requested by family. Family members could use the app to request my location at any time. When a request was made, I would receive a push notification asking me to accept or decline that request. If I didn't respond within a certain amount of time (preferabbly a customizeable amount of time), my location would be automatically unhidden and shared with family.
Here's an example scenario:
Let's say I'm by myself and I'm involved in an accident which leaves me unable to call for help or use my phone. My sister wonders why I didn't show up for our scheduled lunch together. She can't reach me by phone or text message, so she sends a request for my location. The app notifies me that she has requested my location and that I have 10 minutes to respond or my location will be made available to her. I'm hurt and can't use the phone, so after 10 minutes, she sees my location and can try to find me or call for help.
I'd love to see this feature added to Find My Friends. I've looked for other apps that might have this functionality, but can't seem to find any. Most location-sharing apps either make location data available 24/7 or require the user to periodically check in. If anyone has any suggestions for an app that might do what I'm looking for, please let me know. Likewise, if anyone can think of a way that I could use Find My Friends or Find My iPhone to achieve these results, please share that as well.

Answer 1

I discovered an app a couple days ago that works pretty well. It's called Road ID, and it's made by the company that sells the bracelets by the same name. The app is free and has 2 main features: eCrumb and Stationary Alert.
Before going on a run, hike, or ride, you specify how long you think the activity will take. You also specify up to 5 contacts to notify. When you begin your activity, the app sends a text message or email to your chosen contacts with a brief message and a URL. By clicking on the URL, friends can track your current and past GPS location on a map. This is the "eCrumb" feature. Your friends don't have to have the app installed, and they don't need anything other than the provided URL to access your location on the map. When your activity is finished (either because the allotted time expires or you manually end the activity), visitors to the URL can still see your past GPS activity (your movements or "bread crumbs" during your activity) but not your current location. They instead receive a message telling them that you have ended your activity (or something similar).
The "Stationary Alert" feature is pretty neat. Basically it works like this: if you're out for a run, hike, or ride and you remain stationary for longer than 5 minutes, the app's Stationary Alert is triggered. You then have 60 seconds to disable the alert, otherwise the app sends a pre-defined text message or email to your chosen contacts with a link to view your location.
You can enable eCrumbs or Stationary Alert or both. From my testing, if you only enable Stationary Alert, your chosen contacts are not notified of your activity unless the Stationary Alert is triggered. With eCrumbs enabled, they get an alert as soon as you start the activity. I like that I can choose whether my friends/family get to view my real time GPS data or whether they are just alerted if there's an emergency.
I think this app will work well for me when I go running. I'm still testing it out, but it looks promising so far.
Like many third-party app that use location services, this app needs to be running in the background (and most likely needs access to your phone's background app refresh capabilities). That means the app is constantly using your phone's GPS and probably draining your battery more quickly. For that reason, I wouldn't use it for anything other than going out for a run or a hike. I already use GPS apps when I go running, so I'm accustomed to charging my phone before and after a run.
When it comes to something longer, say a solo road trip, I think I'll stick with Jay-Ray's suggestion and just use Find My Friends. I can always set a reminder to hide my location once I get to my destination, or, as Jay-Ray suggested, just leave it on until I need to be sneaky. Find My Friends only uses location data when one of your friends opens the app to request your location. It's similar to Find My iPhone in that it's not constantly using GPS. This definitely saves on battery life.
So, for now, I'm using Road ID for short activities and Find My Friends for longer activities. I don't like having to use 2 different apps, but it's a reasonably easy solution at this time.
P.S. - Don't know if I need one of these, but just in case.......DISCLAIMER: I'm not affiliated with Road ID, Inc., or Apple, Inc., in any way. All app names and feature names are the property of their respective copyright holders/owners and may also be registered trademarks. My recommendations and observations are purely based on my own experiences. Your results may vary. I also don't really go hiking anymore; I'm not a very good runner; and, although I'm often driving by myself, it's certainly not because I'm going on vacation or traveling to fun and exotic locations.