The Locator app provides you a convenient means of searching for places around you. With this app, you can locate various types of places (food, shopping, essentials, entertainment or tourists attractions) which may be of interest to you, wherever you may be. You can view details of each of these businesses surrounding you by tapping on the marker on the map or an item on the list view. Once here, you can get directions, share location, make phone calls or view the business' website all from within the app itself. You can also add the place to the Favorite List.
Powered by Google Maps Api and Google Places Api, the Locator combines Map Search with Geo Fencing. The app contains the following key features:
- Searching for places around your current location
- Generic address search (for searching a location away from your current location)
- Geofencing (where you can set automatic triggering of events as you enter or leave a particular area)
Whether you are a traveller planning for a vacation or a property buyer searching for a good location, you will find the Locator to be a useful tool.
How to use?
Searching for places around you
- Ensure "MyLocation" in the MapOptions is checked.
- Pick a place type using the left drop-down menu
- Refine your search by entering a keyword in the search box ("Japanese" food for eateries).
Searching for a location away from your current location
- Select the "Search" icon on the left drop-down menu.
- Search by name, address or zip code.
- Select from the list of possible places from the Autocomplete feature
- For places outside your country, select global search in MapOptions
- You may continue to search for places around your new location through the left drop-down menu.
Removing a place from the Favorite List
To remove any item from Favorites, do a long press. This applies only to the items you've added. The default Favorite items (Home, Work, School and Car) are hardcoded and cannot be removed.
Setting up Favorites for Home, Work, School or Car
By default, a location in Sydney is shown when you first view the maps for these four items. Tap "Set My Location as Home/Work/School/Car" when you are at the exact location.
Finding your parked Car
- Ensure that you have set the location of your parked car location.
- On the main map view, tap the overflow menu item (3 dots) on the top right of the Action Bar, then select "Find My Car".
- You can also find directions to your car through the Favorites List.
- As the app relies on GPS, this will work only if the car is parked in the open spaced when GPS signals are received.
Setting of Geofences
- Geo-fences can be set for any location in your Favorites List.
- Set the action to be triggered when you enter or leave a particular area
Geofencing actions are as follows:
- Alarm
- Bluetooth On / Bluetooth Off
- Ringer On / Silent Vibrate / Ringer Off
- Wifi On / Wifi Off
- SMS
- Notifications.
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Place Types
- Bus Stations
- Subway Stations
- Taxi Stands
- Gas / Filling Stations
- Parking
- Airport
- Eateries / Restaurants
- Cafes
- Bakeries
- Atms / Banks
- Post Offices
- Movie Theaters / Cinemas
- Bars
- Libraries
- Gyms
- Bowling
- Stadiums
- Beauty/ Hair Salons
- Pharmacies
- Doctors / Clinics / Hospitals
- Dentists
- Lodging / Hotels
- Schools
- Convenience Stores
- Supermarkets
- Department Stores
- Book Stores
- Shopping Malls
- Parks
- Zoo
- Museums
- Casino
- Police Stations
- Fire Stations
- Churches
- Hindu Temples
- Mosques
- Synagogues
Things to note
The Locator app relies on GPS where its accuracy is dependent on many factors. For geo-fences, if there is no reliable data connection, alerts might not be generated. Alerts may also be late.
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The school icon used in the app is obtained from https://icons8.com/ under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. The rest of the icons are from the public domain.
