Standalone device keeps an eye on your belongings
Even though modern smartphones have options for you to keep tabs on friends and family, it’s not really a reliable option to keep track of your belongings. There are some tracking devices available, but they aren’t standalone GPS trackers. Invoxia strives to provide solutions to consumers that will alleviate concerns over theft or loss of belongings. Their GPS Tracker is a single, portable device that can tag along with any of your possessions.
DETAILS
The Invoxia GPS Tracker is a lightweight, compact, discrete device that provides can be placed inside or carried along with pretty much any item you own. It features an anti-theft and geofencing alert as well as 4-month long battery life. A SIM card and 1-year subscription for GPS location tracking are included with the purchase of the device ($39.90 per year after the first year). It works on 4G LTE-M anywhere in the USA. There is a proximity radar and a ring, too. You have the option of receiving alerts by email or text message. With the GPS tracker, you can integrate it into smart home automations and control lights, music, and thermostats when your Tracker enters or leaves your home area.
MAIN FEATURES
- Standalone GPS tracking with unlimited range ( no need to have a smartphone nearby, works anywhere contrary to Bluetooth only trackers)
- Journey history and alerts (geofencing, suspicious activities…)
- Exceptional battery life, up to 4 months depending on usage
- No monthly fees, no hidden fees: SIM card and 1-year subscription to 4G networks (LTE Cat-M1) included
- Lightweight, small and discrete
- Emergency button
- Free iOS & Android app
- Limited to the United States of America
- Works with IFTTT
USER EXPERIENCE
The tracker comes in a simple box with an image of the product on the front. There are some details listed on the back of the box including the dimensions of the tracker. One thing I noticed is that the details on the website state that the cellular service is included for 1year with the purchase, but the box states 2 years are included. The footnote the box indicates that you should visit invoxia.com/coverage for more information, but the page does not exist.
When you first remove it from the box, you should place it on charge. A Micro USB charging cable is included with the tracker. Charging the tracker takes approximately 80 minutes. Once it’s charged, you need to finish the set-up in the app. The app provides on-screen directions to walk you through the process. The first step is to create an account. The app only asks for your first and last name, a password, and your birthdate. You’ll be asked to activate Bluetooth sharing, Location, and Notifications. Once you accept all those permissions, the tracker should be detected by the app. The app will detect the region you are located in automatically (as long as you have Location enabled) and you can change it manually if you need to. Next, you’ll asked to label the possession you plan on placing the tracker with. I set it up for testing purposes so I selected ‘person’ and named it after myself. Once the set-up is complete, an icon will appear on the map indicating where the tracker is located.
The default view of the map is standard outline view that most people are used to seeing using Google Maps or their smartphone’s GPS. You can, however, change it to Satellite or Traffic view. The operation of the tracker is largely automated. The only other thing you have to do is set up Zone Alerts so that you end up getting a notification should the tracker leave its safe area. The app will outline the journey of the tracker and even allow you to view the history of the tracker over time.
To test out the tracker, I placed it in my purse and I drove around town with it while I ran some errands. I left our house and visited the pharmacy, a craft store, a pet food store, and a grocery store before heading back home. The entire trip was just under 8 miles. When I left the house, I noticed the the app didn’t update until after I arrived at a new location and had been stationary for several minutes. Now, there is a “Frequency of Positions” setting that can be set to 5-7 minutes, 10-12 minutes, and 30-32 minutes. This is supposed to be the amount of time where the tracker reports back to the app with a location. I received a notification within about 2 minutes of leaving the house (the safe zone) and then again after I arrived at the pharmacy. This was expected due to the frequency I had selected (10-12 minutes). What wasn’t expected was the delay I would have after that. At 5:39 p.m. the GPS detected I was at the pharmacy. It wouldn’t be until 6:23 p.m. when the app would register my next location. I believe that it only pinged the tracker because I restarted the app.
The screenshot below actually shows my real location (circled in red) in relation to where the tracker was showing up. You will notice that one screenshot was taken at 5:36 p.m., the next was at 6:02 p.m., and the third was at 6:20 p.m. This is much greater than the 10-12 minute interval that the tracker was supposed to be checking in. My point in bringing this observation up is to say that while the tracker seems to be accurate about where it is picking up its location, it doesn’t seem to be 100% reliable when it comes to timing. To me, that’s an issue because if you are trying to find something that was stolen from you, it would be long gone before you had the chance to catch up with it if the tracker is not timing correctly.
CONCLUSION
While I love the concept of this device and the fact that it works independently, I can’t say that I trust it completely. I have concerns that the tracker can’t keep up with what it’s trying to track. I would love it if there was a way to manually ping it from the app without restarting it. It would also be helpful to know exactly how the cellular subscription is supposed to work. The only thing I could find about it was that after one year, it would cost $39.90 per year. I don’t know where the service is through or if it’s an automatic subscription. I do hope that Invoxia makes some improvements on the implementation of this device and system because it’s a great concept for a product to help people.
For more information, visit invoxia.com, Facebook, and Twitter.