Frequently Asked Questions

SpectateMe is built for one thing: race day — helping a runner and their supporters spot each other in the crowd. It is not a safety device, personal tracker, or training companion, and is not recommended or supported for any other use.

It depends on your role:

• Spectators are always free. Joining a runner's session and seeing their position on the map costs nothing. Your own location is shared automatically from your phone's GPS.
• Runners need a subscription to broadcast their location during a race. There's a 30-day free trial, after which it's a small annual fee (see Pricing & Billing).

No. SpectateMe is built for one thing: helping a runner and their supporters find each other on the course during a race. It is not designed, tested, or supported for training runs, solo activity, or general location sharing, and we do not recommend using it for those purposes.

If you need a way for others to follow your location during training runs, use a dedicated app designed for that purpose — such as a running app with live-tracking features, or a personal safety app that includes emergency alerting.

No. SpectateMe is not a safety device and must not be treated as one. It depends on GPS signal, mobile data coverage, and battery life — none of which are guaranteed during a race. Alerts can be delayed, inaccurate, or missed entirely.

If you have safety requirements — for a race or any other activity — choose equipment suited to the purpose: a dedicated personal safety app, an emergency beacon, or a GPS device with reliable SOS functionality. Do not rely on SpectateMe to confirm someone's welfare or to raise an alert in an emergency.

For personal safety during runs, consider apps or devices specifically designed for that purpose. Examples of categories (not endorsements) include:

• Personal safety apps with live location sharing, check-in timers, and emergency alerting (e.g. apps that notify a contact if you don't check in)
• GPS running watches with incident detection and emergency SOS features
• Dedicated emergency beacons for remote or rural routes

Always choose a solution that matches the environment and distance you're covering, and make sure someone knows your route and expected return time.

Yes. When you create a session you can turn on "Require spectator approval". With this on, anyone who taps your session link is placed in a waiting queue rather than joining immediately. You'll see their name and a prompt to Approve or Reject them on your pre-race waiting screen. You can approve or reject as many people as you like before you start.

When you tap Start, you choose what happens to anyone still waiting: either auto-approve them all (they join the moment the session starts) or auto-reject them (they're told the session has begun without them). Once the session is running, no new spectators can be approved — so it's worth handling all pending requests before you set off.

Yes. From both the pre-race waiting screen and the active tracking screen, you can control who can request to join:

• Lock link (reversible): Temporarily blocks new join requests. Anyone who already joined is unaffected. You can unlock at any time.
• Permanently close link (irreversible): Closes the link for good — no new spectators can join even if the link is shared again. This cannot be undone.

These controls apply to new join requests only. Anyone already tracking you continues to do so uninterrupted.

If the runner has turned on spectator approval, you'll land on a waiting screen rather than going straight to the map. Your runner will receive a notification with your name and needs to tap Approve before you can see their location. This usually only takes a moment if they're watching their phone before the race.

SpectateMe requires a mobile data connection to send and receive location updates. GPS itself works without signal (your phone still knows where it is), but sharing that position with supporters requires data.

• Wear OS watches (Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 or later, Pixel Watch, and other Wear OS 3+ devices) — full native app with proximity alerts and a live session screen.
• Garmin watches — native Connect IQ app coming soon. In the meantime, Garmin watches that support notification mirroring will display proximity alerts from your phone.
• Other watches (Polar, Suunto, COROS, Amazfit, etc.) — any watch that mirrors Android notifications will display the proximity alert automatically. No extra setup required.

• Check both devices have an active data connection.
• Make sure the runner has started their session and location sharing is active (the session screen should show a pulsing indicator).
• Try closing and reopening the app on the spectator's device.
• In busy race conditions, the server can experience higher load — a short delay in updates is normal and location will catch up quickly.

• Make sure your location is pinned in the app before the runner reaches your section of the course.
• Check your phone's volume and that SpectateMe has notification permissions (Settings → Apps → SpectateMe → Notifications).
• If using headphones, ensure they're connected before the runner approaches.
• Proximity alerts depend on mobile data — if either device had a signal drop at the key moment, the alert may not have fired in time.

Yes, in a limited way. Our servers write operational logs to AWS CloudWatch Logs (London region, encrypted at rest) for the purpose of diagnosing errors and debugging issues. These logs may contain:

• Your internal account ID (an opaque identifier, not your name or email)
• Your display name (e.g. when you join or are approved for a session)
• Session IDs and timestamps
• Subscription status events (e.g. subscription verified, trial started)
• Auth failure reasons (e.g. "token expired") — but never the token itself

Logs do not contain your GPS location, email address, full Google ID, or payment details. All log entries are automatically and permanently deleted after 14 days.

When your deletion request is processed, we will permanently delete:

• Your name and email address
• Your Google account ID
• Your subscription or entitlement record
• Any open sessions associated with your account
• Any session records linked to you (these would normally be automatically deleted 5 days after the session ends, but are purged immediately on a deletion request)

Two categories of data are retained after deletion:

1. A pseudonymised identifier and, if applicable, a purchase token (up to 14 months)
To prevent abuse of our free trial offer, we retain a one-way cryptographic hash (SHA-256) of your Google ID for up to 14 months after account deletion. This hash is a mathematical fingerprint — it cannot be reversed to identify you, and it contains no personal information such as your name or email. It is used solely to detect if someone attempts to create a new account to obtain another free trial.

If you had an active or past Google Play subscription, we also retain your Google Play purchase token alongside the hash. This is used solely to restore your subscription if you re-subscribe within the retention period. It is not shared with any third party beyond Google Play's own systems. Both the hash and the purchase token are automatically and permanently deleted after 14 months.

2. Anonymised aggregate data (indefinitely)
We may retain anonymised, non-identifiable statistics (such as total session counts or geographic heat maps of race participation) that cannot be linked back to any individual. This data is not personal data under UK GDPR.