Life360

Life360 Inc. is a San Francisco–based information technology company that provides location-based services, including sharing and notifications, to consumers globally. Its main service is called Life360, a family social networking app released in 2008. It is a location-based service designed primarily to enable friends and family members to share their location with each other.

Life360 Inc.
Type of businessPublic
Traded asASX: 360
Founded2008 (2008)
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, United States
Area servedWorldwide, ex-China
Key people
  • Chris Hulls (Executive Director,
    Co-founder)
  • RJ (Chief Executive Officer)
  • John Philip Coghlan (Independent Non-Executive Chair)
Revenue US$ 59.0 million (December 2019)
URLwww.life360.com
Users 27.2 million monthly active users (MAU) (December 2019)
Current statusActive
Native client(s) on
Life360
Family Locator - GPS Tracker (Android)
Find My Family, Friends, Phone (iOS)
Developer(s)Life360
Initial release2008 (Android) ; 2010 (iOS)
Stable release
Android19.7.42 / November 2, 2019 (2019-11-02)[1]
iOS19.6.1 / October 28, 2019 (2019-10-28)[2]
Operating systemiOS 11 and later
Android 6.0 and later
Windows Phone
Size145.9 MB iOS ; 35 MB Android
Available inSpanish, German, Korean, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and Indonesian [3]
TypeLocation-based service
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.life360.com 

History

Life360 was founded by Chris Hulls and has received a total of $90 million in funding since its launch, including funding from both Facebook and Google.[4] The app was initially released in 2008 in the Android marketplace.[5] The first funding for Life360 came in the form of a $275,000 grant as a winner of Google's 2008 Android Developer Challenge.[6] Additional funding included $5.5 million in a Series A round, $17 million in a Series B round, and $50 million in a Series C round.[4]

Life360 entered into an agreement with BMW in 2013 to integrate the location services of Life360 with the navigation in BMW automobiles.[5] The same year, Life360 surpassed Foursquare in the number of registered users with 34 million[5] and reached more than 40 million registered users the same year.[4] Life360 also saw an increase in user registration following the announcement from Google that they would be shutting down their Google Latitude platform in August 2013.[7]

It was announced in 2013 that Life360 would be adding global support for its app which would include support in languages other than English and international SMS.[8] The announcement came after downloads of the Life360 app increased internationally, even though the app was only available in English.[8]

In 2016, Life360 added a feature that enables smartphones to detect when people are in a car crash and automatically contacts emergency response.[9] In February 2016, Life360 acquired the private messaging application and Y Combinator grad "Couple" based in Mountain View, California.[10]

At CES in January 2018, ADT announced ADT Go in partnership with Life360. ADT Go connects and protects families outside the home, utilizing ADT's expansive security infrastructure.[11][12]

In May 2019, Life360 listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the ticker "360", raising proceeds totaling AU$145.4 million.[13][14] The majority of the funds raised are to be used to grow the business globally and develop home insurance and home security products as well as auto insurance sold directly to service its customers.[15]

In November 2019, the company acquired ZenScreen, a San Jose, California-based app that guides users and their families to track and attain screen time habits for a more balanced digital diet, for an undisclosed sum.[16] By December 2019, Life360 surpassed 27 million monthly active users (MAUs).[17]

Features

Life360 is both a web and mobile application and was referred to as a "family-oriented private social network" by Bloomberg Businessweek.[8] The app is a social network for families and differentiates itself in this way as it is not based around peer groups or professional networks such as Find My Friends and LinkedIn. It allows users to share locations, group message, and call for roadside assistance.[18] It has four main features: location sharing, circles, places, and premium.

Location sharing

The main feature of the app is location sharing. Users can open the app and see where other members are instantly. Users can choose to share or not their location with any particular circle at any particular time.[19]

Circles

Circles is the app's newest feature, released on September 3, 2013. Circles allows users to create separate groups within the app, e.g. “caregivers,” “extended family,” and “John’s baseball team.” Users’ location is only visible to those who are also in the circle, and members in “caregivers” cannot see the location of users in “extended family,” unless they are also in that circle.[20]

Places

Life360 allows users to create geofences that alert them when another enters or leaves another location.[21]

Premium

Life360 operates as a freemium app, and users can pay for extra features.[8] These extra features include: stolen phone insurance, access to a live advisor 24/7, unlimited creation of “Places," and emergency roadside assistance (known as 'Driver Protect').[8]

Criticism

An article by The Washington Post claims that parents are using the location sharing feature to track their teenage and adult children "in ways that resemble emotional abuse."[22]

Awards and recognition

Life360 has received multiple awards including funding as winner of both Google Android Developer Challenge[6] and Facebook fbFund.[23] It received the People's Voice Award for Best Use of GPS or Location Technology at the 2012 Webby Awards.[24] The same year it received the Reader's Choice Award from About.com as the Coolest Parenting Teens Gadget Winner.[25]

References
  1. "Family Locator - GPS Tracker APKs". APKMirror. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  2. "Find My Family, Friends, Phone". App Store. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  3. "Life360 Doubles Down on Growth Efforts". Life360. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  4. Perez, Sarah (10 July 2013). "Life360, This app was created to ruin all kids lives because of their parents using this app. <real life experiences of kids everywhere>The Family Locator With More Users Than Foursquare, Raises A $10 Million Series B". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  5. Perez, Sarah (26 April 2013). "Life360, A Family Networking App With more Users Than Foursquare, Is Now Headed For Cars, Smart Home Systems". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  6. Siegler, MG (28 August 2008). "Android Developer Challenge I winners – nary a big name in sight". Venture Beat. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  7. Riddell, Lindsay (24 July 2013). "Life360 goes after Google Latitude's evicted users". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  8. Fitchard, Kevin (3 July 2013). "Life360's App Knows Where Your Children Are". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  9. Privat, Ludovic. "Life360 Adds Car Crash Detection and Automatic Emergency Call to App". GPS BUSINESS NEWS. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  10. "Family App Life360 Acquires Couple, A Private Messaging App For Two – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  11. "ADT unveils apps, doorbells and more at CES 2018". CNET. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  12. "Prioritizing utility in its family social network, Life360 raises $50M from ADT to tackle the connected home". Pando. 14 May 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  13. "Life360 Completes IPO on ASX". Business Wire. 11 May 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  14. Bailey, Michael (10 May 2019). "Life360 passes first day of ASX litmus test". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  15. Duran, Paulina (18 April 2019). "U.S. family tracking app Life360 launches $104 million Australian IPO". Reuters. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  16. "Life360 Acquires ZenScreen". FinSMEs. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  17. "December 2019 Quarterly Business Update and Appendix 4C" (PDF). Life360 Investor Relations. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  18. "Life360 app stay connected with family and friends". theappzine.com, Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  19. Dickinson, Boonsri (20 June 2011). "Life360 turns your smartphone into a lifeline". CNet. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  20. Fitchard, Kevin (4 September 2013). "Life360 moves beyond the nuclear family, adding social features to its tracking app". Gigaom. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  21. Yeung, Ken (18 December 2012). "Life360, the location app for families, nears 25m users; adds geo-fencing feature and local crime data". The Next Web. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  22. Ohlheiser, Abby (22 October 2019). "'Don't leave campus': Parents are now using tracking apps to watch their kids at college". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  23. Kincaid, Jason (28 May 2009). "Facebook Names First Class of fbFund REV, Its New Incubator". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
  24. "Best use of GPS or Location Technology". Webby Awards. 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  25. Witmer, Denise (2012). "Coolest Parenting Teens Gadget Winner: Life360 Family Locator". About.com. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
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