Feature Idea: Multi-Device Tracking Support

[dgraf-gh]

After reviewing several incoming feature requests, I realized something interesting: while reitti currently focuses on tracking your personal location, many users might benefit from the ability to track multiple devices they own, such as vehicles, pets, or personal gadgets.

Here's my concept for how this could work:

---

How It Would Work

Multi-Device Association

Each user account could have multiple devices linked to it, making it easy to manage everything in one place.

Dedicated API Keys

Each device would automatically receive its own API key. This simplifies integration with lighter-weight solutions like GPSLogger, Overland, or the default OwnTracks app. For more advanced setups like MQTT or OwnTracks-Recorder, additional configuration would still be required, but the API key approach provides a solid foundation for all integration methods.

Flexible Map Display

On the map view, you'd have full control over what to show:

• Hidden — Keep certain devices private when not needed
• Current location only — See where each device is right now without clutter
• Full tracking path — View the complete movement history when relevant

Smart Data Storage

Additional device locations would be stored efficiently in the database without the overhead of full user processing:

• Raw GPS points stored without the complexity
• No automatic Visit Detection or Trip Calculations
• Keeps performance optimized while still giving you the data you need

---

What This Could Enable

This approach could support real-world scenarios like:

• Vehicle monitoring — Know the location of cars, bikes, or other assets
• Pet tracking — Monitor GPS collars for furry companions
• Work fleet management — Simple location overview for business needs
• Personal gadget tracking — Keep tabs on devices you want to locate remotely

---

Your Input Matters

Does this concept address any use cases you have in mind? If you already track multiple devices with reitti, I'd love to hear about your specific situation and what would make this feature truly useful for you.

What do you think about this direction? Are there aspects you'd like to see adjusted or features that would make this more valuable for your needs?

[christaikobo]

This is a great high-level write up. I have a couple of suggestions in terms of implementation:

1. Like suggested in another issue, different devices, as well as shared user data, should all each have a different color;
2. I think we should be able to designate/change the default device in the settings, which will be shown by default (this should be persistent and written to database, not stored in browser cache); all other devices should either be hidden or only show current location by default.

[dgraf-gh]

Yes, like already possible the color should be changeable. Additionally some indicator which color belongs to which device/user. Maybe the border of the avatar can provide space for that.

For the second point. What would be the usecase? I imagine a solution where we show your users timeline and paths always. That is the main point of reitti. Additionally you can add devices you would like to monitor the location of.

[christaikobo]

There are 2 parts for point number 2,

first is that the ability to designate primary/default device;
second is we should hide non primary device by default.

I think it would be natural to hide non primary device by default.

I guess what is debatable is whether the user should be able define a primary device. I was thinking about the situation where I get a new cellphone. Now I think about it, each device would have its designated API token, and we just need to use the primary token for our primary device. When changing cellphone, I would just use the primary token for my new phone, and if the old phone is still being used for a different purpose, I would simply create a new API token for it. So in summary, users probably don't need the ability to define a primary device, they just need to be able to generate and use the correct tokens.

[tobru]

This matches my use case quite well. I own a "main" device, which represents "me", typically this is the smartphone I use every day. Then I have a bunch of GPS trackers for all sorts of things, mainly for my curiosity about how all these different GPS trackers work and what I can do with them (for example via LoRaWAN). For them, I don't need full-blown visit detection or trip calculations.

[Jonsen94]

Sounds great!
Even thought this one would most prob. need an app or some other integration just as an idea for later:
Integration for trackers like AirTags.

Also it would be great to mark timeslots in which a device does not represent you.
As you stated in another discussion thread: I am also not a 100% sure this is the right way for reitti as it would require manual input.
I have two use cases (one which is prob. more common):

• when jogging I often only took my smart watch with me. During this time the watches position (and my later upload of the gpx track) was 'my' position while my phone was laying at home. Thus: during this time the devices positions differ but 'my' position (and thus visited places and so on) was depending on the other device
• a little bit more "unusual": during skiing i lost my phone for 2 hours. Now i have tracks of the person who found it instead of mine :D But i think this is more a niche case

We could also take device types into account:
if the car position and the users reported position are identical this could be used to mark the timespan as a car drive (and thus enhance the detection algorithms)

Depending on the device type we could also add more filtering or auto hide modes:

• my bags with air tags are at home 95% of the time, only when traveling they will move

[christaikobo]

You have 4 things rolled into 1 here: airtag, switch of primary device, lost device, transportation mode detection.

1. airtag integration needs some kind of hack into the apple system
2. switch of main device: how do you suggest the change happen? I don't think there is a way to "automatically decide" which device is primary.
3. lost device: that needs manual deletion of data within a certain period
4. transportation mode detection: this needs the implementation of transportation mode first.

Feels like number 3 can be easily achieved, though it is quite niche.

[Jonsen94]

1. yes, thought so. Those were just meant to be rough ideas. As I do not have a macbook i never looked into the possibilities to integrate further. Maybe android allows it with their tracking devices?
2. that would have to be a manual thing or some "clever" mapping: if one devices moves but the other does not and stays at some point one could auto-suggest/apply the switch

[dgraf-gh]

I will try to pickup your ideas here but as a first impression I think we are on the right track here.

Lets assume we somehow get the data from the devices or whatever you want to track. There are a lot of uncertainties here but lets do not look at that.

So right now, we have a user with one or more api tokens. This is our baseline and will also be the future way of having your timeline. This is the one you track with your main device for example your phone.

Then we add a new feature. Devices associated with this main account. They get their own api key for ingestion and to associate the data to that device. They can have additional attributes like color, name etc.
All devices are hidden by default on the map.

Now everything tracks its data, your main device tracks directly into your user data with the complete visit and trips detection. All others report into their device accounts without any detection. We just store the raw path.

when jogging I often only took my smart watch with me. During this time the watches position (and my later upload of the gpx track) was 'my' position while my phone was laying at home. Thus: during this time the devices positions differ but 'my' position (and thus visited places and so on) was depending on the other device

This could be solved when we add the ability to copy data from the tracked smartwatch back to your main account, essentially overriding the data from your phone with your data from the jogging. This would be a manual process for the time but it should solve your usecase by reconstructing your personal journey.

a little bit more "unusual": during skiing i lost my phone for 2 hours. Now i have tracks of the person who found it instead of mine :D But i think this is more a niche case

Lets just hope this does not happen again. :D but if so, your best bet is that I at one time decide it would be bice to have the ability to delete points or drop them from the database.

We could also take device types into account:
if the car position and the users reported position are identical this could be used to mark the timespan as a car drive (and thus enhance the detection algorithms)

Since we would not merge timelines, there is no real usecase here to assign transportation modes to devices. There was already an idea in having a dedicated app with some algorithms based on the sensors of the phone to detect the certainty of transportation mode.

[dowdell]

Your plan sounds great to me. Currently I'm tracking a couple of other assets using separate accounts, each with their own API key, which then share data (1 way) with my main account.

Initially I noticed that updating locations from the main account didn't impact the others, and found issues/suggestions about being able to use "shared" locations across accounts, but your proposal made me realize that I don't really need visit detection for the other devices and should save some processing power on my server.