GeoMessaging Instructions

Basic Instructions

Here's how to get started with GeoMessaging:

• 1. Touch the What tab. Tap the chat bubble and enter your message, up to 140 characters.

  2. Touch the Where tab. Wait a few seconds until the iPhone button is enabled (the GPS takes a short amount of time to find your location) and tap it. Use one finger to move around the map and pinch to zoom as needed. When you find your trigger region on the map tap the Set Tripwire button. Now use two fingers to put down the tripwire perimeter (repeating this as necessary).

  3. Touch the Who tab. Enter the emails of your recipients on the input field or tap the Plus icon to bring up your Address Book.

  4. Touch the How tab. You only need to perform this step once. Tap Provider to select your mail provider. Tap Email and enter your (full) email address. Finally tap Password to enter your email password.

  5. Tap the Activate button at the top navigation bar. GeoMessaging is now active (screens will be red and locked to changes) and is monitoring your location for any crossing of the tripwire perimeter. When crossing is detected your message will be sent and GeoMessaging returns to deactivated state.

  6. Do not press the Home button on the iPhone. The GeoMessaging application must be left on in order for it to continue monitoring your position. You may press the Lock button to start the screen saver on your iPhone.

For more detailed instructions please see the next section. Also refer to the FAQ.

Detailed Instructions

Step 1: Enter your message

After starting GeoMessaging, touch the What tab. This screen displays a text entry field in the form of a chat balloon. Tap the balloon and the keyboard will come up and you may enter your text. You are limited to 140 characters. A counter appears at the top of the balloon signaling the amount of characters left that you may enter. Once you are done tap the keyboard Done button. The Clear button will erase any text in the balloon.

Step 2: Set the trigger perimeter

On the Where tab the Maps interface will allow you to pan and zoom around to locate your region of interest (where you want the message to be sent). You can enter an address on the top search input field to assist you in locating this region, or select an address from your Contacts (the "+" button to the right of the search field).

The map will show your current position with a blue dot. The iPhone button on the lower menu (above the tab bar icons on the bottom) will become enabled once your position has been detected. Tapping the button will center the map on your current position.

Once you've identified the region tap the Set Perimeter button (on the lower menu). The maps background turns green and the map is now locked. Touch the map with two fingers and a circle will be drawn with an estimate of its diameter. Increase and decrease the circle by pinching, and move it around by moving your two fingers on the map. After the circle has been set, the map reverts to its normal operation. Tapping the Tripwire button will center the map on the existing perimeter.

Note: the circle size is an indicator to GeoMessaging of the level of geographic accuracy and monitoring desired. The wider the circle, the less precise but the less battery is consumed. Conversely, the smaller the circle, the more precise the measurements but the greater the battery use. Please refer to the FAQ for further discussion and recommendations on this issue.

When active, GeoMessaging will monitor your iPhone's location. When you cross the rim of the circle (whether inbound or outbound) your message will be sent. When this happens GeoMessaging deactivates and you will need to activate it once more if you want it to trigger with the existing settings again.

Step 3: Add contacts

On the Who tab you can enter the emails of the recipients of your message. Enter an email directly on the input field box at the top, or you may also tap the Plus icon which will bring up your Address Book and allow you to select an email address.

Tip: Most cellphone providers offer an email-to-text-message gateway. For example, AT&T is <phone>@txt.att.net, Verizon is <phone>@vtext.com, and Sprint is <phone>@messaging.sprintpcs.com. Use the addresses to send text messages to your recipients' phones. Save these addresses in your iPhone's Address Book and it will be readily accessible in GeoMessaging.

If you want to delete a recipient, just swipe along a row and the Delete button will come up.

Step 4: Configure your own email settings (one-time setup only)

On the How tab, you will need to perform a one-time setup of your own email provider settings. This will be the email from which the GeoMessaging messages will be sent from. Tap the first row to display a list of supported email providers: Google Mail, Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and Mobile Me. Select the appropriate provider for your email.

Next, tap the Address row and enter your full email address.

Finally, tap the Password row and enter your email password.

OPTIONAL: Tap Test Email Settings to send out a test message to yourself using the credentials supplied. This will verify whether GeoMessaging is able to use your email for sending messages out.

Note: your email credentials are securely stored in your iPhone's internal keychain. All communication with the email providers happens through a secure SSL connection.

Step 5: Activate your tripwire

Now that you've successfully entered the what, where, who, and how information, all that is left to do is to activate the Tripwire. The navigation bar across the top of all screens contains two buttons: Reset and Activate. Tapping Reset will bring up a dialog box asking confirmation to clear the contents of the What, Where, and Who screens. Tapping on Activate will start Tripwire's GPS monitoring and will lock all screens with a red background to indicate that changes cannot be made until Tripwire is deactivated. A Deactivate button replaces Activate, and when touched it will stop Tripwire monitoring and will unlock screens for changes.