Off by default. On only if you choose. Always visible to your child.

Location is not switched on when you set up Orbit. You turn it on for one child at a time, deliberately, and when it is on your child can always see that location sharing is active on their own device. There is no hidden mode and no silent tracking, because a child who is being watched without knowing it isn't safe, they're just surveilled. The whole feature is built around that line.

See where they are, right now

When you want to check in, you open your child's page in Orbit and tap Locate. Orbit asks their device for a fresh position and shows it on a map, with how accurate the fix is and the exact time it was taken: "as of 3:42pm". You're never left guessing how old the dot is.

Phones aren't always reachable, so Orbit is honest about it. If the device is switched off, out of signal, or location has been turned off on it, you'll see the last known position clearly marked as old, along with the reason a newer one couldn't be fetched, rather than a confident-looking dot that might be hours stale. Knowing "we last saw them at the bus stop at 3:42, and we can't reach the phone right now" is far more useful than a wrong pin that looks current.

Locating is a one-off, on-request check. Orbit isn't following your child around in the background drawing a line on a map all day, it answers the question "where is this device now?" when you ask it, and that's it.

Places & arrival alerts

You can also tell Orbit about the places that matter to your family: home, school, a grandparent's house, a club. You pick a spot on a map and a radius around it, give it a name, and that's a place.

Once a place exists, you can add a simple expectation to it, in the same day-and-time way you already set screen time and quiet hours: "should be at School on weekdays, 8:30am to 4:00pm", say. If your child leaves that place outside the window you expected, Orbit sends you a heads-up and adds it to your alerts feed: "Bob left School at 2:12pm, expected until 4:00pm." You notice early, when it still matters, instead of finding out hours later.

The checking happens on your child's own device, using the phone's built-in, battery-friendly way of noticing it has crossed a boundary, so this doesn't mean a GPS running flat-out all day. And because places and rules live in your Orbit, you can add, change, or remove them at any time from your phone, with no need to re-pair or reinstall anything on your child's device.

Built for privacy

Location is the most sensitive thing a family-safety app can touch, so we hold it to a higher bar than anything else, not a lower one.

  • Opt-in, per child. It starts off. You turn it on for a specific child, on purpose. Turning it off again stops everything.
  • Always visible to your child. When location sharing is on, your child can see that on their own device. Transparency isn't a setting they have to go hunting for; it's part of the feature.
  • We keep as little as possible. Orbit holds the latest known position and only a short, recent history, not an indefinite map of everywhere your child has ever been. Older location data is deleted automatically.
  • Your coordinates aren't a product. A child's location is never sold, never used for advertising, and never handed to an ad-funded mapping service to mine. We chose our maps with that rule first.
  • It's still about safety, not snooping. Location sits alongside the rest of Orbit's parent controls, with the same honesty: the goal is a child who knows their parent has their back, not one who feels followed.

For how Orbit protects everything else your family sends, see the Security page and our privacy & plans chapter.

When it's available

Location is part of every Orbit plan, the free Starter plan included; it isn't something we charge extra for. It's one of Orbit's closer-supervision tools, so it's offered at the supervision levels meant for younger children, Guarded and Standard, and not when a child is on Open, the level built for older teens who have earned more independence. We'll confirm any remaining details on this page as the feature rolls out.

Safety is never paywalled.

Location is free because the things that keep your child safe should be. The same goes for end-to-end encryption, Mack the on-phone safety guard, the crisis safety net, your child's "I don't like this message" report button, the watchlist, and approval for every cross-family chat, all on every Orbit account, Free included. Paid plans add capacity, not safety.