Colota is an open-source Android app — AGPL-3.0, by Max Dietrich and contributors — that tracks your location and sends it to your own server, works offline, and carries no analytics or telemetry. It is live on Google Play, F-Droid and IzzyOnDroid. I worked on it as a significant contributor: React Native, live GPS tracking, and heavy real-time map rendering on MapLibre.
The hard part of a tracker is the part you never see. A foreground service keeps recording through the day; locations queue on the device and sync when connectivity returns — instantly, in batches, Wi-Fi-only or offline-first; tracking profiles switch the GPS interval and distance filter on their own when the phone is charging, on Android Auto, above a speed or standing still. Geofences pause recording at home. Map areas download for trips out of coverage.
The part you do see is the map: a live dashboard with the current position and a tracking card, a location history that draws every trip of a day as its own coloured segment with per-trip stats and a calendar of activity dots, a geofence editor, and a full dark theme. It talks to Dawarich, GeoPulse, Home Assistant, Overland, OwnTracks, PhoneTrack, Reitti, Traccar or any custom endpoint, and imports years of Google Timeline, GPX, KML, GeoJSON or CSV.
- 01Live tracking with a foreground service and offline queueing
- 02Real-time MapLibre map — dashboard, history, geofences
- 03Tracking profiles that switch on charging, Android Auto, speed or stillness
- 04Sync to nine backends or any HTTPS endpoint; encrypted backups
- 05Import and export — Google Timeline, GPX, KML, GeoJSON, CSV
