A parent’s guide to following a trip home

Lots of parents ask their teenager to text when they get on the bus, and again when they get off. Friends & family in Shoo. takes care of that part, without anyone typing on the way home.

It takes a few minutes to set up together, and it’s built so your kid decides what you see.

Family & friendsOn the move

Chloe Nguyen333To Bondi Junction 1:26 pmArrives

Sam WalkerM1To Chatswood 1:21 pmArrives

Marcus ReidT4Walking to Central 1:16 pmArrives

Add each other

You’ll both need Shoo. and an account. If your kid is under 16, the privacy policy asks them to check with a parent before creating one, which works out neatly here.

• On your phone, open Friends & family and tap Add friend. Your invite is ready straight away: a code, how long it lasts, and room for up to five friends.
• Tap Share invite to send it, or read the code out across the kitchen.
• On their phone, under Got an invite?, they type the code and tap Add. Opening your invite link works too, and it always asks whether to add you as a friend first.

Each person can have up to five friends and family in Shoo., so leave a place for the other parent.

Let them choose what you see

Adding each other shares nothing yet. For a new friend, Share my trips starts off. Your kid turns it on for you from the menu beside your name in Friends & family.

From then on, whenever they travel with Shoo. guiding the trip, which starts when they tap Go, you see the service they’re on, where it’s heading, how many stops are left and when they’ll arrive. When they get there, it says they’ve arrived.

Where they are is a separate choice, made trip by trip. In Share your trip, they tick the people who can see them move, for that trip only. Their phone then sends its position about every 10 seconds until they arrive. If something goes wrong on their phone and it never says the trip is over, our server ends the sharing after six hours anyway.

On your side

When they tick you in Share your trip, their trip can come to your Dynamic Island and Lock Screen by itself, sent through Apple’s push service, so you don’t need Shoo. open. While they’re travelling, you can also turn on Show in Dynamic Island from the menu beside their name. Either way it stays up to date until the trip ends.

On the map, a friend who’s riding is drawn on their actual bus or train, with their photo or initials, wherever Transport for NSW publishes that vehicle’s live position. Tap them to follow that vehicle, with its stops ahead and when it gets in. Stop following ends it whenever you like.

One plan for the family

Shoo. is a free public beta on TestFlight for now, and nothing can be charged during the beta. Once it’s on the App Store, the yearly plan (A$39.99) and the Founder Pass (A$99.99) can be shared through Apple’s Family Sharing, with the family organiser and up to five others, so one purchase can cover your kid too. The monthly plan (A$4.99) is for one person.