Automatic journey recording

What does MoveJack do?

MoveJack records your journeys automatically, with no start or stop button. You do not need to open the app for that.

For each journey the app saves the start and end time, the route as a series of GPS points, the distance, the start and end address, the vehicle and the category. Everything is kept in a database on your phone.

How does MoveJack know you are setting off?

In the background, the app uses your phone’s location and the operating system’s motion detection. A journey starts as soon as your phone is moving like a vehicle: in a vehicle according to motion detection and faster than 5 km/h, or faster than 12 km/h, whatever motion detection says.

A few signals also help the app not to miss a journey. Around the place where you last stopped, the app sets a virtual boundary of 150 metres: once you leave it, the app pays extra attention. If you have paired a Bluetooth tag in your car, it gets the app ready for the journey.

Not every movement becomes a journey. The app only saves a journey with at least 5 usable location points, at least 0.3 kilometres and an average speed between 10 and 350 km/h.

When does a journey end?

A journey stops when your phone moves no more than 30 metres for three minutes. A journey also stops after a minute of continuous walking, for example when you walk away after parking.

As the end time, the app saves the moment you arrived, not the end of those three minutes.

These rules apply to every means of transport. Whether it was a car, bike, train, tram or bus journey, the app only decides afterwards: see recognising car, bike, train, tram and bus.

Starting and stopping a journey yourself

On the home screen you can also start and stop a journey yourself with Start trip and Stop trip. That also works when Automatic tracking is off, and outside your office hours.

A journey you started yourself also stops after three minutes standing still or a minute of walking, and is only saved if it meets the same minimum.

If the app stopped in between

The app’s location engine keeps saving location points even if you have swiped the app away, and holds on to points that are not yet a journey for up to seven days. When you open the app again, it still turns those points into separate journeys.

After your iPhone restarts, you open the app once to resume recording. If notifications are on, the app reminds you with the notification “Trip tracking paused”.

What is needed?

• Location permission Always (on Android: Allow all the time), with precise location. If location is only allowed while using the app, the home screen says: “Background location is off — trips are not being recorded”.
• Automatic tracking on. That switch is on the home screen and is on by default.
• An active subscription or the free trial, to see your journeys in the app: see subscription.

More about the permissions is in permissions and app lock.

Does it work without internet?

Yes. The recording itself works without internet: the app works out the location, the start and end of a journey, the distance and the category on your phone.

The app requests the address and the speed limit from a map service. Without a connection it fills them in later: addresses when you refresh the journey overview, missing speed limits when you open the journey.

Where are your journeys?

Journeys are put together and kept on your phone. The location engine has no upload destination, and MoveJack keeps no central copy of your journey history. See where your journeys are stored.