A place alert starts as a circle: a center and a radius. For places that aren’t round, like a long gated community or a corner school, the circle alerts about people just passing on the next street. A drawn area fixes that: you trace the place’s outline on the map.
Before you start
- Drawing an area is part of the Complete plan.
- If you leave Complete, the area keeps working, but the drawing can’t be changed. You can always go back to a circle.
1. Open the place
Create a new place (see How to create a place alert) or tap an existing one in your places list.
2. Switch to a drawn area
Above the radius card, tap Drawn area. The map opens full screen, with an area the size of the circle.
3. Draw the outline
- To add a point, tap the map or the + in the middle of a side.
- To move a point, press, hold and drag it.
- To remove a point, tap it and use the bar that appears.
- Made a mistake? The undo button is in the corner of the map.
4. Fix what the app points out
If the border turns red, the area panel tells you what to fix:
- Crossing lines: two sides can’t cross.
- Area too narrow: it needs to be about 100 meters wide, the size of GPS error.
- Area too large: shrink the outline.
5. Save
Tap Finish and save the place. Arrival and departure alerts, safe arrival and the other alerts work just like with the circle.
To go back to a round shape, open the place and tap Circle.
Tips
- Trace along the place’s wall or fence, not the streets around it.
- More points don’t make alerts more exact than the phone’s GPS. A few well-placed points are enough.
- A departure alert when the person didn’t leave usually means the area is too narrow: widen the drawing a little.
