New Feature: SMS Locators on Mobile
We are excited to announce the addition of the SMS locators feature to the mobile app! An SMS locator is a message sent from CalTopo to a missing or injured person. When they open the text from CalTopo, their location automatically populates on your map.
SMS locators are one of our most powerful and widely used team specific features. Search and rescue teams use them to locate missing hikers, ski patrol’s for locating and quickly assisting an injured skier, to name a few common uses. Tell us in the comments below how your team uses SMS locators. We’ve heard of some unique ideas!
Over time, the use of a mobile command station with a computer on site has lessened. More teams are performing the majority of mission planning on a mobile device, and adding this feature to the mobile app has been highly requested.
The ability to send SMS locators is now live on the newest app release 1.11.4 (or newer). If you belong to a team, please ensure that you have this version downloaded to use this mobile feature. To check for updates visit the app store by following this link : https://caltopo.com/appstore.
If your department does not currently have a team account and you are interested in this feature, you can find more details at caltopo.com/teams.
SMS locators in the mobile app work almost identically to online. Choose the “add” button at the top of the app, scroll down and choose SMS Locators. As always, you must be working from a saved map to use this feature.
SMS Locators in action on the mobile app.
For more details on using SMS Locators, see this section of the CalTopo User Guide: SMS Locators.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below or email us at help@caltopo.com.
Can the SMS locator be used with international (non US or Canada) phone numbers?
Yes, it should work with international numbers as well.
Thanks! Would the format be +country code? Do you need the leading +?
You can either lead with +__ as the code or use the extended country code. For instance for the US you could use either +1 or 001 (although you only need to include the country code if it is a non North American number).
Perfect! Thanks for the information…
I’m late in catching up on the blog. If the search progresses to the need for segmentation of an area, I can’t imagine for myself doing that on the small screen of a mobile app……..just an observation.
Hi Chuck,
It is still very much available on the web if you prefer to use it there. We have many teams that have asked for the ability to send from their phones while already on a mission in the past.