GPS stands for Global Positioning System, comprising 27 satellites orbiting the Earth. These satellites transmit signals to GPS-enabled mobile devices at regular intervals to measure the receiver’s location against the location of the satellites. The distance between the phone and each satellite will determine an accurate location.
Most smartphone operating systems, including Android, iOS and Windows, have GPS capabilities, which can be turned on and off by the user.
Once a location is recorded, it can then be stored on the user’s device or transmitted to another device, such as a computer, using SMS, GPRS, Wi-Fi or a 3G/4G connection. The StaySafe app is a GPS tracking app and uses this functionality.