An honest comparison of Life360 and Guardian TND.
Lots of people compare Guardian TND to Life360 and think they're proactively covered for emergencies with both. We feel differently because they are used in distinctly different ways for different purposes.
Here's our take on it. We may have overlooked something (and please let us know if we did), but in a nutshell Life360 is used to track the location of people in your family at all times. It requires those who follow you to be proactive and you to be reactive if something's gone wrong, which isn't always possible when something unexpected happens.
Guardian TND does NOT track your location unless there's an emergency. It is intended for use amongst family, friends, co-workers and neighbors - not just family.
Guardian TND is used as a proactive alert system that notifies people you choose if, and only when, there's an emergency. It's both proactive and reactive on your behalf, requiring absolutely nothing from you if something bad happens. It's used for completely different circumstances than Life360 and is designed to give you a sense of safety and extra peace of mind when moving from Point A and Point B.
Guardian is based on privacy and requires NO personal information. One thing that most people don't even realize until they're done with Guardian app setup is that there's absolutely ZERO personal information required for you or your Guardians. No email address, no phone number, no username, no password, no login. Guardian TND doesn't need to know anything about you to offer protection. Your privacy and personal information is yours, not ours.
Life360 does not know if your family member is in an emergency because it only shows that a person's phone is located at a certain spot. The phone may even be in the spot where you expect your family member to be, but does that mean they are ok and safe?
Although there's an emergency button in Life360, if your family member has no access to successfully complete these 4 steps in their phone (unlocking it, navigating to the Life360 app, finding the emergency button and then pressing the emergency button) then they're out of luck in terms of alerting you they need help. Considering that your family member may not have access to their phone in an emergency and if they're like most people in real emergencies, the overwhelming likelihood is that they will freeze, makes requiring a reactive action (like Life360 requires) for all intents and purposes, worthless. Guardian works automatically and proactively for these types of situations by alerting your Guardians if you don't indicate that you're safely at Point B (by tapping your phone to the Point B chip or entering your secret PIN code).
Life360 is typically a family share app. Parents can know the locations at all times of their kids. Husbands and wives know the locations at all times of each other. On the contrary, Guardian encourages you to setup not just family but also friends, co-workers and neighbors as Guardians because in an emergency situation, you want as many people checking on you as possible. If something happens near your house, your neighbor would be best. If it's near your work, your boss or co-worker would be best. If it's out and about, perhaps your friends would be best. Since you're NOT tracked all the time and these people are notified only in emergencies, it's OK to share with numerous people that you would never want to do when using Life360. For example, do you want your boss checking where you are on Friday night at 11 pm? Guardian TND doesn't allow that. Life360 does.
The vast majority of Life360 users limit their social safety network to their family because they don't want neighbors, friends and co-workers to track them 24/7. This limits the ability to be helped in an emergency and places a lot of dependence on those few people in your family. What if family members have a dead battery or are in a dead zone? On the contrary, Guardian allows you to create your social safety network with an unlimited number of people you choose to be notified ONLY in the event of an emergency. If some Guardians have a dead battery or are in a dead zone, the likelihood is that others will be available. Since Guardian does not track you, we encourage users to add multiple Guardians. In essence, add anyone you can think of that you might want to be alerted and/or to come help you in case you're in an emergency.
If your phone loses cell signal or GPS Guardian continues working but Life360 doesn't.
For those that use Life360, the assumption is that because someone you track is in a certain geographic location they are OK. It is very easy to imagine numerous scenarios where you may be where your family expected you to be but you are actually in trouble. That's where Guardian comes in by requiring a phone tap to a Point B chip (or entering a private PIN code) after leaving Point A to be sure that all is well. If you don't check in at Point B, then your Guardians are notified. With Guardian, no assumptions are made until there's a reason.
The same reasoning can be applied to trackers like Apple Air Tags and location sharing the iPhones. Knowing someone's location doesn't indicate whether they are safe or not.
The summary is that Life360 and Guardian TND are distinctly different in the services and benefits they offer. You don't have to and shouldn't choose one over the other. They both serve a different purpose, especially if safety is of concern. Life360 focuses on tracking where people (family) are at all times and Guardian TND focuses on proactively notifying certain people (i.e. your Guardians - friends, family, neighbors and co-workers) if you are in an emergency.