The Live Sharing connects you to the Aqua Map community (all the users logged with the GEC Account that approved to share their info). When you enable this function, and accept the Privacy Policy, you will share your boat and navigation info with the community and at the same time you will be able to see on the map all the active Live Sharing users position, their My Boat information and their navigation details (speed, course and, when available, depth and wind).
While connected to Live Sharing, you can also chat with other users and easily share or receive your preferred routes, tracks, and markers.
Live Sharing page
From the general Settings page, you can access the Live Sharing main page. Here, you have access to the main parameters, your shared data, and the list of Live Sharing users currently connected to the Aqua Map community.
At the top of this page, you'll find a switch to enable the entire Live Sharing functionality.
Note: that when enabling Live Sharing, it's mandatory to explicitly approve the dedicated Privacy Policy. For iOS users, enabling the functionality will prompt a request to enable Push Notification service. If not accepted, you won't receive notifications for new messages in the chat.
Then you have two options to define what you see on the map.
- Show on map: to select which Live Sharing users you will see on the map. "None" and "Favorites" are straightforward choices. With "All," you will see your favorite users plus all currently active Live Sharing users. Active users are those who have sent their position at least once in the last 24 hours.
- Map symbol: to choose how each user appears on the map. With "Avatar," you will see their avatar image (or a default image if they haven't uploaded one). With "Depth," you will see a number representing their live depth reading, while "Wind" will show their live True Wind direction and speed, and "Speed" will display their live speed.
NOTE: Wind and Depth values will be available only if the user has an active Wi-Fi connection receiving NMEA (or SignalK) sentences for Wind and Depth.
NOTE: these options are available only if you have an Advanced Tools subscription active, if not, only the Avatar option is selectable.
Then you can choose when Aqua Map sends your data to the Live Sharing server.
If you enable this option, Aqua Map will continue to send data to the server even if you close the app (while running in the background). This option does not affect how you receive data (you won't receive data when the app is in the background) and has a minimal impact on cellular data usage. Enabling this option allows other boaters to see your live position even when you're not actively using the app.
Aqua Map community list
The second part of the page contains all the currently available Aqua Map community info.
The first row represents the data that you are currently sharing with the Live Sharing function. Essentially, it shows what other users can see about you.
Then you have a switch that allows you to select what to see in the list.
- Favorites: shows the list of users you've selected as Favorites (tapping on the
icon), ordered by distance from your GPS position. - Active: displays the list of all Aqua Map users who have enabled Live Sharing and are currently active (meaning they've sent at least one data update in a day), ordered by distance from your GPS position. With this selection, you can also enter an additional text filter in the search field just below the switch.
- Chats: lists all your chats with other Live Sharing users, ordered by time (with the most recent at the top). If you see a red circle on the Chats tab (as shown in the image above), it means you have unread messages; the number in the red circle indicates the number of chats with at least one unread message.
- Search: allows you to search among all users, even if they are not active or have disabled Live Sharing. You can search by name or by boating lifestyles, or both. If you're searching only by name (without adding any additional boating lifestyle filters), you need to enter at least 3 characters to start the search. This list is ordered alphabetically.
Depending on the tab selected you will get a list with the following info:
- Avatar: The first icon features an image at the center (either the user's selected avatar or a default one if none is chosen), surrounded by an external colored border. A "yellow" border indicates an active user marked as a favorite, "blue" indicates an active user, and "gray" indicates a non-active user. Additionally, a small green arrow indicates the user's movement direction.
- Favorite status: this star icon shows if the user is a Favorite
or not 
. Tapping on the icon will toggle the user's Favorite status. If you're viewing the Favorite list, tapping on the icon will remove the user from the list. - User info: The textual part of the row provides a summary of the user's data. Tapping on this section will close the current page and center the map on the selected user.
- Boating lifestyles: At the bottom of the row, you'll find icons representing the user's boating lifestyles (set in the My Boat page).
: tapping on this icon will open the Live Sharing user details page (see below)
If you've selected the Chats tab, the row appears differently: instead of the User info and lifestyles, it displays the first unread message (or the last received message if there are no unread ones). Tapping on the row will open the User Chat page.
User Details page
You can open the Live Sharing user details page in two different ways:
- By tapping on a Live Sharing user icon on the map, which opens a pop-up window. Then, selecting the information button
on the right, it will open this page.
- from the above Live Sharing list, tap on the
This is the Live Sharing user details page:
In this page you have:
- GEC Account username: displayed in the top bar.
- User Avatar, if applicable
- Chat: With the 'chat'
button you will be able to chat with that user. - Public Folder: with the 'Public Folder'
button you will open the Public Folder page for that user. - Personal info: Includes some personal user and boat information. The last row the list of user boating lifestyles (see My Boat page).
- Boat info: Provides additional boat details.
- Navigation info: When scrolling down the page, the last section displays the most recent navigational data sent by this user, along with the distance from your position.
Note: Depth and wind information are available only if the user has an active Wi-Fi connection between Aqua Map and NMEA (or SignalK) instruments transmitting the depth and wind data.
At the bottom section of the screen, you'll find a menu with the following options:
-
: enable the user Favorite status. Tap to mark or unmark the user as a Favorite. A filled star indicates the user is a Favorite, while an empty star means they are not. 
. - center
the map on the user: Tap to close this page and zoom the map to center on the selected user.
: disable the user Highlight status. Tap to highlight the user. When highlighted, the user's icon on the map flashes red, and the arrow and distance in the Live Sharing box on the map will always point to the highlighted user. You can only highlight one user at a time, which can be useful for tracking a specific user's movement on the map.
User Chat page
You can open this page in many ways:
- When you tap on a Live Sharing user icon on the map, it opens a pop-up window. Then, by selecting the left button, you can open this page.
- From the Chats list above, tap on a specific user, and you will open this page. Similarly, from the User Details page above, tap on the
button to open this page.
This is the User Chat page:
On this page, you'll find a list of messages exchanged with this user, ordered by time, with the most recent at the bottom. The pink rows represent the messages you sent, while the white rows represent the messages you received. To send a new message, use the text area at the bottom, and when you're ready, press the send button 
to send the message.
You can use the link 
button to add a User data (route, track, or marker) to the message you are sending. Similarly, you can utilize the "Import" button in the message list to import the data you received into the app.
Live Sharing on the map
Once you activate the Live Sharing function, you'll see Live Sharing users on the screen based on your "Show on Map" setting. The icons vary depending on the user type:
: Represents a Favorite user that is currently active (sent a position in the last 24h).
: Represents a Favorite user that is currently NOT active (he has not sent a position in the last 24h).
NOTE: only Favorite users are drawn when not active, standard users are not.
: Represents a Highlighted user, this icon will also flash on screen. You can only highlight one user at a time, set in the Live Sharing user details page.
: Represents an active Live Sharing user who is not one of your Favorites.
In the center of the icon, you'll find the user's avatar or a default one if not selected, or a number representing specific user data selected by the "Map symbol" setting. When zoomed in, the boat name or Captain name (if the boat name is missing) or the GEC Account username (if both other names are missing) will appear below the icon.
When tapping on a Live Sharing icon on the map you get a dedicated pop-up:
Here, you can kick off a chat with the user by hitting the 
chat button, or you can access the user's Live Sharing details page (as mentioned earlier) using the info button. And remember, tapping the center of the pop-up gives you access to a list of all the nearby objects.
On the map, you'll also notice the Live Sharing box situated just above the GPS Box, showcasing real-time Live Sharing information:
You can observe from left to right:
- The Live Sharing icon (flashing if receiving data),
- The number of active users in the world (if you selected the "All" option in the "Show on map" switch),
- The Favorite icon and the number of active Favorite users in the world,
- An arrow with a distance pointing to:
- The Highlighted user (red arrow), or
- If there is not an highlighted user (as in the above image), to the nearest active Favorite within 10 NM (yellow arrow), or
- If you do not have any Favorite active user to the nearest active user (white arrow).
- If you see a red circle (as in the image above) means you have unread messages in the chats (the number represent the number of chats with at least one unread message in it), tapping on the red circle will open the Chats list page.
Note: Tapping on this box will directly take you to the Live Sharing settings page.
