Prerequisites
To use Track Your Team, you need:
- An Android smartphone with an internet connection
- The runners you want to track must have a Garmin watch (with LiveTrack enabled), a COROS watch (with Safety Alerts enabled), or use Strava Beacon (Strava subscribers)
- The share link sent by each runner (received via SMS, email or other)
Garmin LiveTrack is a built-in feature on Garmin watches that allows sharing your GPS position in real time via a URL link. The runner activates it from their watch settings or the Garmin Connect app.
COROS Safety Alerts is the equivalent on COROS watches: the runner enables position sharing in the COROS app and sends the generated link to their followers.
Strava Beacon (Strava subscribers only) shares live position via a link sent by SMS when the activity starts, from the Strava app on iPhone or Apple Watch.
Adding a runner
From the main screen, tap the "Add Runner" button at the bottom of the screen.
Enter the runner's name (e.g. "Marie") in the field provided.
Paste the runner's Garmin LiveTrack, COROS Safety or Strava Beacon link. It looks like:
https://livetrack.garmin.com/session/.../token/... (Garmin)
https://s.coros.com/... (COROS)
💡 Tip: In your email app, long-press the link to copy the URL.
Tap "Add". The runner will appear on the map as soon as GPS data is available.
If the runner just started their activity, there may be a short delay before the first GPS positions are available. The message "Waiting for GPS position" will be displayed until the connection is established.
Importing a GPX route
You can overlay an official course on the map to track runners' progress along the route. If your GPX file contains waypoints (points of interest), they are automatically classified and displayed:
| Type | Recognized by | Extracted info |
|---|---|---|
| 🥤 Aid station | names like "Ravito", "Aid station"… | Distance if present ("Aid 30.3km") |
| ⏱️ Time cutoff | names like "BH", "Cutoff", "Time limit"… | Cutoff time ("1:20 PM cutoff") |
| 💧 Water point | names like "Water", "Fontaine"… | — |
| 🏁 Start / 🎯 Finish | names like "Start", "Départ", "Finish"… | — |
| 📍 POI | other unclassified waypoints | Description if present |
Tap a marker to view details (distance, cutoff time, altitude, description).
Go to the "My Tracks" screen via the menu or the track icon.
Tap "Import GPX file" and select your file from your device.
The course is displayed on the map as a highlighted path. The total distance is shown in the header.
To remove the displayed route, use the "Clear track" option from settings or the dedicated icon.
On the "My Tracks" screen, each imported GPX shows a colored icon based on its filename:
| Keyword in filename | Icon color |
|---|---|
route or parcours | 🟠 Orange |
trail or sentier | 🟢 Green |
race or course | 🔴 Red |
| no matching keyword | 🔵 Blue (default) |
Name your GPX files accordingly to distinguish them visually in the list (e.g. UTMB-trail-2026.gpx will be green, marathon-paris-race.gpx will be red).
Predictive weather (wind-aware)
Track Your Team includes smart weather analysis along the route to anticipate upcoming conditions.
Tap the weather icon 🌦️ in the map controls. Weather refreshes automatically every hour and stays localized around the runner (sliding window: -5 km to +20 km around the group).
The analysis automatically adapts to three situations:
A route is loaded but no runner is on the track yet. Weather then covers the entire route: perfect for scouting conditions the day before a race. The banner shows the number of condition changes ("🔭 Course weather: 3 changes — tap the icons"), or describes a uniform condition ("Rain over the whole course"). Icons placed along the track show where the weather changes.
The selected runner is following the route. Alerts are personalized for them: "🌧️ Rain at km 32 (~50 min)" means that at their average pace, they will reach the rain at km 32 in about 50 minutes (forecast computed for their estimated arrival time). The sliding window follows their position (-5 km to +20 km).
If the runner moves away from the route (beyond the adjustable GPS deviation threshold), the weather switches to their actual position rather than the track. The banner shows current conditions where they are (☀️ temperature · 💨 wind · 💧 precipitation).
A "wind-aware" analysis tops it off: satellites perpendicular to the track (±20 km) detect whether a rain zone is heading toward the route based on wind direction.
Possible alert types:
- ⛈️ Heavy rain arriving at km X in Y min
- 🌧️ Rain upcoming or incoming from a satellite (wind-aware)
- ⚡ Thunderstorm arriving
- ❄️ Snow arriving
- 🔥 Heat (temperature > 28°C / 82°F)
- 🥶 Cold (temperature < 5°C / 41°F)
- 💨 Strong wind (> 40 km/h / 25 mph)
Values (distance, temperature, wind speed) are displayed in metric or imperial units based on your settings.
Coach Mode
Coach mode lets you display your own position on the map, which is useful for support crews and lets you know the distance between you and your runners.
Tap the coach button (👻 icon) in the map controls. The app will ask for permission to access your GPS location.
Once activated, your position appears with a purple 👻 marker on the map. The distance between you and each runner is calculated in real time.
Information displayed for each runner
The app displays the following data for each tracked runner:
| Data | Description |
|---|---|
| Position | Colored marker on the map with the runner's initials |
| Path | Colored line showing the route traveled |
| Distance | Total distance covered (in km or miles) |
| D+ (Elevation) | Cumulative elevation gain, from Garmin or calculated locally |
| Speed | Runner's current speed |
| Altitude | Runner's current altitude |
| Heart rate | Real-time BPM (if available on the watch) |
| Duration | Time elapsed since the activity started |
| Progress | % progress along the GPX route (if a GPX is loaded) |
Map controls
Several options allow you to customize the map display:
- 📍 Auto-centering (locate-outline): the map automatically follows a selected runner or the coach's position
- 🔍 Auto-zoom (search-outline): adjusts the zoom level to keep the tracked runner visible
- 🧭 Auto-north (compass-outline): when enabled, the map automatically re-orients to north after each manual rotation or recenter. Disable it to freely keep the orientation of your choice (handy to align the map with the race direction).
- 🔄 Refresh (refresh-outline): manually refreshes all runner positions
- ⏸️ Pause / Play (pause-circle / play-circle): enables or disables automatic refreshing
- 🗺️ GPX view (expand-outline): zooms to the entire GPX route for an overview
- 👤 Center on a runner: tap a runner's name in the panel to center the map on their position
In the settings, you can choose the state of these three buttons (auto-centering, auto-zoom, auto-north) when the app starts. You get your preferences back every time you open the app, while staying free to change them during a session.
App settings
From the Settings screen (accessible via the ⚙️ icon), you can configure:
- Theme: Light ☀️, Dark 🌙 or Automatic 🌅 (follows system preferences)
- Language: French 🇫🇷 or English 🇬🇧
- Units: Metric (km) or Imperial (miles)
- Refresh rate: interval (in seconds) between position updates
- GPS deviation threshold: maximum distance between GPS position and official track to calculate progress (recommended: 50m road, 100m trail, 300m mountain)
- Map buttons: default state (at startup) of auto-centering, auto-zoom and auto-north
- External GPS: enables coach mode even on a tablet without a GPS chip, if you use an external Bluetooth GPS receiver
Session backup and restore
The app automatically saves your runners and settings. On next launch, a prompt will offer to restore the previous session.
You can also:
- Reset runners from settings
- Delete a runner individually via their context menu
Frequently asked questions
The runner doesn't appear on the map?
Make sure the runner has activated LiveTrack on their Garmin watch and that their activity is in progress. The app will display "Waiting for GPS position" until data becomes available.
The LiveTrack session is marked as ended?
When the runner stops their activity, the LiveTrack session closes. The app then displays "Session ended". Data remains temporarily visible but is no longer updated.
Is the elevation data reliable?
Elevation gain (D+) is computed with a “valley-to-peak” algorithm — the same principle as GPS watches — producing values aligned with Garmin Connect. It applies to all sources: Garmin, COROS, Strava and GPX routes.
Can I track runners with other watch brands?
Track Your Team currently supports Garmin LiveTrack, COROS Safety Alerts and Strava Beacon. For other brands (Suunto, Polar…), there is no public API yet allowing real-time tracking.