Family Location Sharing Android App with Geofence Alerts

Family location sharing answers a simple everyday question — where is everyone right now — without a phone call to each person. Parents want to know a child reached college safely, a commuter wants to know a partner has left home, and a family wants to notice if an elderly parent living alone has not moved all day. Group chats and repeated calls give partial answers, arrive late, and interrupt the person asked. A family location sharing Android app solves this by showing each consenting member on one shared map, with a geofence around places such as home and college that raises an entry or exit alert automatically. Location is shared only inside the family circle, only with explicit consent, and any member can pause sharing, so reassurance does not become surveillance. This project builds that app in Kotlin with the Google Maps SDK, the Fused Location Provider and Firebase, demonstrating the full loop from location update to geofence alert.

A family location sharing app with geofence alerts works as a loop: location in, sync out, geofence check, alert back. The Android app requests fine location permission and the Fused Location Provider supplies the phone's position, combining GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile-network signals. Each update is written to Firebase Realtime Database under the member's record in the family circle, and every other member's app listens to the same circle, so the shared map refreshes without anyone pressing refresh. Separately, the app registers circular geofences — a latitude, longitude and radius for home and for college — with the Android Geofencing API, which watches for enter, exit and dwell transitions even when the app is in the background. When a transition fires, the app writes the event to the alert feed and sends a notification to the circle, for example "Kabir entered College at 8:55 am". Pausing sharing stops the app's own location writes while leaving other members visible.

1. A family member installs the app, signs in, and joins or creates an invite-only family circle with explicit consent to share location.
2. The app requests fine location permission, and background location permission where geofence alerts must work while the app is closed.
3. The Fused Location Provider supplies the phone's position, and the app writes it to Firebase Realtime Database under that member's circle record.
4. Every circle member's app listens to the same Firebase node, so the shared map and member list refresh as new locations arrive.
5. The app registers circular geofences for home and college with the Geofencing API, each defined by latitude, longitude and radius in metres.
6. The Geofencing API fires an enter, exit or dwell transition when a member crosses a boundary, and the app writes the event to the alert feed.
7. The circle receives a notification for the transition, for example "Kabir entered College at 8:55 am", with the time and place recorded.
8. Any member can pause sharing from the app; the pause stops that member's own location writes and is shown to the circle.

Tech stack:

• Kotlin (Android)
• Google Maps SDK for Android
• Fused Location Provider (Google Play services)
• Geofencing API (Google Play services)
• Firebase Realtime Database
• Firebase Authentication
• Android Studio
• Material Design components

A family location sharing app is judged on four capabilities: a live map readable at a glance, geofence alerts without anyone checking the phone, a consent model that every member understands, and location data that stays fresh without draining the battery. It delivers all four: the live map shows every consenting member with a last-seen time and a place name, not just a dot. Geofences around home and college fire enter, exit and dwell alerts through the Android Geofencing API. The family circle is invite-only, each member can pause sharing, and a persistent notification shows while sharing is on. Location updates use the Fused Location Provider in balanced mode, combining GPS, Wi-Fi and network signals instead of running GPS continuously. Builder note: the working demo built for this project renders 4 family members and 2 geofence circles from one HTML file, with the alert feed, member list and map updating together on every simulated entry or exit.

• [Live family map] Every consenting member appears on one shared map with a name, place label and last-seen time, so the family's positions are readable in a glance without opening separate chats or calling anyone.
• [Geofence entry, exit and dwell alerts] A circular geofence around home or college fires an alert when a member enters, leaves, or stays inside for a set dwell time, and each alert is logged in the feed with its transition type and timestamp.
• [Consent-based family circle] Membership is invite-only and location is shared only inside the circle; any member can pause sharing at any time, and the app shows a persistent notification while sharing is active.
• [Member list with last-seen and battery] The circle view lists each member's place, last-seen time and battery level, so a stale location is never mistaken for a live one and a low battery explains a gap.
• [Place and geofence management] Family members can add, edit and remove places, set each geofence radius in metres, and choose which transitions (enter, exit, dwell) raise an alert for that place.
• [Location history trail] The app keeps a recent trail of each member's movements for the past 24 hours (design target), so a route home or a missed college arrival can be checked after the event.
• [Battery-aware location updates] The Fused Location Provider supplies locations in balanced mode, combining GPS, Wi-Fi and network signals, so updates stay useful without keeping GPS on continuously.

• Complete Android app source code in Kotlin (map, circle, geofences, alerts, settings)
• Firebase project configuration (Realtime Database rules and Authentication setup guide)
• Working single-file HTML demo of the app (map, member list, geofences, alert feed)
• Project report PDF (background, location and geofencing theory, methodology, limitations)
• PPT presentation for final review
• Viva Q&A preparation document (permissions, Fused Location Provider, Geofencing API, Firebase sync, privacy)