Sharing a trip with someone who is not travelling
A link, no account, and it expires by itself.
One of the most-used safety features on any ride platform is also the simplest: letting somebody else watch your trip.
How it works
From a live trip you can share it. The person you share with receives a link that shows the vehicle, the driver's details and the car's position on the route. They do not need a Topsy account, and they do not need to install anything.
The link expires on its own. It is tied to that trip rather than to your account, so sharing a journey does not hand anybody ongoing access to where you are.
When to use it
Travelling late. Travelling somewhere unfamiliar. Travelling after an evening out. Sending a child, a parent or a visitor somewhere and wanting to know they arrived.
It is also useful in an entirely unremarkable way: telling somebody who is meeting you how far away you actually are, rather than guessing.
What it is not
It is not continuous location sharing. It shows one trip. When the trip ends, the link stops being useful, which is deliberate. A permanent tracking link shared once in a group chat is a privacy problem waiting to happen.
Alongside the other tools
Trip sharing sits with the rest of the safety tooling: the four-digit PIN that must match before a trip starts, the driver and vehicle details shown before arrival, trusted contacts, and SOS available during the trip.
None of these require you to make a decision under pressure, which is the standard safety features have to meet. Anything that requires calm consideration at the exact moment you are worried will not get used.
For guardians specifically
If you are booking for a child through Topsy Teens, sharing the trip with whoever is at the other end means a teacher, a relative or a neighbour can see the car approaching without an account and without you relaying updates by phone.