Simple In/Out for your phone can automatically update your status by carrying your device into your workplace. When you enter your office, the Geofence will check you in. When you leave your office, the Geofence will check you out. We do all this by using low-power methods your phone is already doing and all without sacrificing privacy.
Our automatic updating monitors an area designated on a map by a company administrator. The user of our phone app chooses whether to enable Geofences and which ones to activate. When a user crosses a Geofence's boundary with their phone, the Simple In/Out app sends a status update on the user's behalf. Our apps use location information to process these status updates, but this location information is used only to check whether you crossed the boundary. No location information is saved or transmitted. Period. Read our entire privacy statement.
Let’s say you created a Geofence around your office building. When you arrive at the office in the morning, the Geofence will send an update to Simple In/Out when you cross the boundary and your status will show you are “In the Office”. When you leave for your lunch break, your status will change to “Left Office” so that others know you left the office and when. No one will know where you went for lunch.
Beacons work great for smaller areas, but sometimes you need larger areas that Beacons just can't support without a lot of hardware. Using Geofences, you can cover these targets without having to setup countless Beacons.
Use Geofences when:
Use Beacons when:
Increase the size of the Geofence. We generally start with a size of 100 meters, but the bigger the better. Really small Geofences won’t give the device enough room to determine if you are coming or going. Enable WiFi on your phone if you can. Using WiFi dramatically increases the success of using Geofences; phones use WiFi, cell towers, etc. to determine when your location changes. We have many more suggestions by clicking the Read more link below.
When you cross a boundary for Geofences or leave the range of a Beacon or WiFi Network, it will overwrite your last status only if the status is not the same. For example, if you have a custom comment on an Out status (e.g. lunch, back at one o’clock) and you leave an area, instead of the automatic update overwriting your status, it will instead present you with a message saying it didn't overwrite your status because you were already out. You can still submit this status change if you wish.
Yes, you can use a feature we call Active Time. This allows you to choose time periods and days that automatic updates can happen so you don't have to worry about checking into the office on a Saturday if you're using your office laptop.