Live hunt

Learn how to start, join and end a live hunt where participants see each other's positions on the map in real time.

What is a live hunt?

A live hunt is a session where participants share their GPS position with the rest of the team during the hunt itself. The purpose is safety: knowing where your fellow hunters are reduces the risk of accidents involving line of fire and movement.

Two roles exist within a session:

• Sharing: your phone uploads your position roughly every ten seconds, even when the screen is locked or the phone is in your pocket.
• Viewer: you see other hunters on the map but do not share your own position.

Start a hunt

You can start a live hunt two ways:

1. From a calendar event: open the event, RSVP attending, tap Start live hunt. Other attending participants get a push notification that the hunt is on. A group hunt is started only by its hunt leader, whoever created it, or an administrator. Everyone else joins once it has started.
2. Ad-hoc: from the home map, tap Start live hunt. The whole team gets a push notification.

Read-only member

A read-only member cannot start a hunt, but can join a hunt someone else has started and share their position like everyone else. See Members.

Pick a duration in hours (1 to 24, default 24). The session auto-ends when the time runs out. You can also turn auto-close off if you do not want any time limit. The session always auto-ends if no one shares a position for 4 hours.

When you start a hunt ad-hoc, Jaktli automatically creates an event in the team calendar. The event is marked Live hunt and gets a guest code right away. Its date and time follow the real hunt and cannot be changed, and the event cannot be deleted while the hunt is in progress.

Several hunts at the same time

Your team can have more than one hunt running at once, one per area. A drive can work the north while another group sits in the south, each with its own participant list, its own chat and its own hunt log.

When you start a hunt you choose an area. You can pick:

• All hunting grounds if the hunt covers the whole of the team's land.
• A hunting ground if the team has several and the hunt covers only one of them.
• A sub-area if the hunt covers only one part.

If you start the hunt from an activity in the calendar, the area comes from that activity and you do not have to choose.

These rules apply:

• Two hunts can never share the same area. The area is shown greyed out with the name of the hunt already on it.
• A hunt on all hunting grounds blocks every other hunt. While it runs you cannot start a new one, and you cannot pick all hunting grounds while any other hunt is running.
• Two sub-areas that overlap can be hunted at the same time, but you get a question first showing which hunts they are and where. Press Start anyway to continue.
• Sub-areas that do not overlap start without any question.

You can only be on one hunt at a time. If you try to join another, you get a question showing which hunt you are leaving and which one you are joining.

Everyone is on the map

Even though the hunts are separate, you see everyone who is out with the team on the map, not only those on your hunt. Hunters from another hunt are drawn with a lighter marker and the name of their hunt, and they count in the safety warnings exactly like your own hunting partners. A bullet does not care whose participant list you are on.

When more than one hunt is running you see a warning triangle with the number of ongoing hunts on the map. Press it to see which they are and switch to another. On the home screen the same number shows as a small badge on Map.

Invite a guest during the hunt

You can invite a hunter who is not a team member without leaving the map:

1. Open the hunt controls on the map.
2. Tap Invite.
3. Show the panel to your guest. The guest points their phone camera at the QR code and Jaktli opens in the right place. You can also read the code out loud or tap Share.

Read more about what guests can see and do under Guest hunts.

Share your position

The first time you share, the phone asks for:

1. Location While In Use: to display the map
2. Background location: to keep sharing when the screen is off

Allow both. On Android, a persistent notification appears while you share; tap it to stop sharing.

Keep the app running

Live hunt does not work if you force-quit the app. On Android, sharing usually survives power-saver mode, but on iOS sharing stops if you push the app away from the app switcher.

Pause and resume sharing

The live hunt now lives directly on the team map. While you share, a Pause sharing button appears in the hunt controls. Tap it to temporarily stop sending your position. On Android you can also tap the persistent notification.

While paused you stay in the session and continue to see other hunters' positions. Tap Resume sharing to start sharing again.

Share your position without a live hunt

You can let the team see where you are even when no hunt is running, for example when walking the grounds, checking a bait site or sitting on a stand alone.

1. Open the Map.
2. Tap the arrow button above the Start hunt button in the bottom right corner.
3. Switch on Share with the team in the box that opens.

The button turns orange while you share. Sharing keeps going in the background until you switch it off the same way, even if you close the app or restart the phone and open the app again.

How it works:

• Only members of the team you chose see you. Guest hunters, landowners and other restricted roles do not see the team's positions. Read-only members see them, like other members, and can share their own position.
• The team sees only your latest position, no trail. After 30 minutes without contact you disappear from the map, and switching sharing off removes the position at once.
• You show on the map as a hollow marker with your name, just like hunters on another live hunt. The safety arrows on the map count you in.
• If you start or join a hunt, the hunt takes over sharing. When the hunt ends, sharing resumes by itself.
• The same GPS mode as in a hunt decides how often the position is sent. You reach it from the same box.

The first time, the phone asks for the same location permissions as for a hunt. Say yes to Always allow, otherwise sharing stops when the screen turns off.

Web

On the web you see the team's shared positions on the map, but you cannot share your own position from there.

Choose a GPS mode and save battery

Jaktli can adjust how often your position updates, so the battery lasts longer. Open the hunt controls on the map and tap GPS mode.

• Automatic is the default. The app senses whether you are standing still, how much battery you have left and whether the phone is charging. The position is only sent while you are moving: when you stand still at your post no new positions are sent until you start walking again, and then the rate goes back up right away.
• Custom interval lets you decide yourself: every 5, 10 or 30 seconds, or every 1, 3, 5 or 10 minutes. The position is always sent at the chosen interval, even when you stand still.
• Battery saver updates the position about once a minute while you are moving, with lower accuracy. Hunt notifications are also muted on your phone while the hunt is running. Use it when the battery needs to last all day.

If you change mode during a hunt it applies right away.

Your hunting companions can see how often your position updates, next to your battery level. The map also takes your interval into account: if you pick a slow interval you are not shown as away until the interval plus two minutes has passed without an update (at least five minutes).

iPhone

On iPhone the system controls the exact update rate, so the interval is approximate.

End the hunt

On a group hunt, its hunt leader, whoever created it, or an administrator can tap End hunt. On other hunts it is whoever started the hunt or an administrator. The button is in the hunt controls on the map. All participants stop sharing and the session enters replay mode with the full track from the hunt.

Leave hunt is not the same as ending it. If you leave, the hunt keeps running for everyone still in it, including anyone who has only paused sharing. It only ends by itself when the last participant leaves. If you started the hunt, or are a secretary/team lead, and tap Leave hunt while others are still in it, the app asks whether you want to end the hunt for everyone or only leave.

When several hunts are running you can also end one you are not on yourself. Tap End on the hunt's card in the hunt log, or the warning triangle on the map and then End in the list. That helps when somebody has forgotten to end a hunt that is draining batteries.

Requires administrator role or session starter

On a group hunt only the hunt leader, whoever created it, or an administrator can end the hunt; on other hunts the starter or an administrator. Regular participants can leave the session but cannot end it for others.

Write a hunt report

When the hunt ends you are asked if you want to write a hunt report. It is a few lines of free text about how the day went. The report is entirely optional, tap Skip if you do not want to write anything. The report is saved on the hunt's page in the hunt log where the whole team can read it. You can also add or change the report later, see Hunt log.

Everything happens on the map

The live hunt used to have its own session screen. Today all the controls live on the regular team map, so you can start, share, log events, and end without jumping between screens. When one or more hunts are running, the number shows as a small badge on Map on the home screen; tap the tile to reach the map. If you are on a hunt yourself, it opens straight away.

The map can be built on while the hunt is running too. The plus button stays, so a missing stand, an area or a line can be added straight away without waiting for the hunt to end. It works as usual, see The map.

People on the map

You choose how the hunters on the map are labelled. Open Map settings (the button with the sliders) and pick under People on the map:

• Initials: the first letters of the first and last name, for example "KS". This is the default and takes the least room.
• Full names: the whole name next to every hunter.
• Nicknames: the nickname the person has entered in their profile. Without a nickname the initials are shown.
• Call signs: the name the person uses on the radio, so what you hear on the radio matches what you see. Without a call sign the initials are shown. See Members.

The choice applies to everyone on the map: the people on your hunt, those hunting on another part of the ground and those sharing their position outside a hunt. It is saved on your account and follows you to all your phones and the computer. The full name always shows when you tap a hunter. If the hunter has a phone number in their profile, the card also has Call and Message buttons, so you can reach your team-mate without leaving the map.

Safety indicators on the map

While a hunt is in progress the map shows extra safety overlays to help you keep track of other participants before you raise a rifle:

• Distance rings: tap the rings button to draw 100 m, 250 m and 500 m circles around your own position. Useful for quickly judging whether a team-mate is within shot range.
• Scent / wind cone: a cone drawn in the direction you are facing (with wind strength from the weather layer). Only active once the phone's compass is calibrated. Trace a figure-eight in the air with your phone if the button looks greyed out.
• Off-screen hunters: if a sharing team-mate is off-screen, a blue arrow appears at the edge of the map with their name and distance. The arrow always points toward the person regardless of how you pan the map. If you would rather not see the arrows, turn off Show off-screen hunters under Hunt in the map Filter. The "no-shoot" markings always show.
• Follow me: centres the map on your own position and keeps it centred while you move. Tap again to stop following.

Calibrate the compass

The wind and shot cones require the phone's compass to be calibrated. Trace a figure-eight in the air with your phone until the calibration indicator disappears. Without calibration the cone is greyed out or not shown.

Hide the trails on the map

Behind every participant and dog the map draws a trail showing where they have been. If it gets cluttered you can turn the trails off:

1. Open the map Filter
2. Under Hunt, turn off Show my trail, Show others' trails or Show dog trails

Only the lines disappear. Your own, your team-mates' and the dogs' positions and the "no-shoot" arrows are shown as usual. The choice is saved on your phone and applies until you turn the trails back on. The Hunt section only appears in the filter while a hunt is running. It also holds Smooth GPS trails, Show off-screen hunters and Only this hunt's stands.

Smooth the GPS trails

Sometimes a phone's GPS jumps to a wrong place for a moment, especially in dense forest or when someone is standing still at a stand. On the map it looks as if the hunter ran off and came straight back. Jaktli therefore removes such jumps from the hunters' trails. It is on from the start.

If you want to see the trails exactly as the phones sent them, you can turn it off:

1. Open the map Filter
2. Under Hunt, turn off Smooth GPS trails

Only the lines are affected. Each hunter's dot and the "no-shoot" arrows always show the latest real position. The choice is saved on your phone.

Dogs on the map

If you have added a tracker under My dogs, your dog automatically appears on the map while the hunt is running. With a Garmin collar you need both your Garmin watch on your wrist with the Jaktli app running and the handheld nearby. Both are required. With an OpenTrack phone on the dog, it is enough that tracking is started. The whole team sees the dog.

Beta

Dog tracking is still in beta. See My dogs for which equipment is tested.

• The dog is shown as a dot with its name. Tap the dot to see the dog's photo, breed and status, plus distance and bearing from you. The status comes from the collar: Moving, Stationary, On point or Treed.
• When the dog is on point or treed you see it on the map itself, without tapping. The ring around the dog's dot turns orange for On point and red for Treed, and the word appears under the dog's name. If the collar loses contact the dot turns grey with Lost contact under the name. A phone on the dog does not know what the dog is doing, so it shows no status.
• In the participant list in the hunt controls, each dog appears as its own row under its handler, with a paw icon. A handler can have several dogs. Tap the dog's row to centre the map on the dog.
• Tap the paw button on the right side of the map to open the list of your trackers.
• The Share button on each tracker controls whether the dog's position is shared with the team. Turn it off when you drive between drives, and back on at the next release.
• The dog's track is saved with the hunt. After the hunt ends you can review the dog's path and distance in the Hunt log.

A new track after a pause

When you turn sharing back on, the dog starts a new track. The old track is not shown, so the car ride draws no strange lines on the map.

The paw button

The paw button only appears if you have added trackers yourself. The rest of the team's dogs are still visible on the map for everyone.

Viewing from the web

The web app at jaktli.se shows live and ended hunts. You can view but not start or share. The web viewer auto-joins as a viewer.

The web viewer also draws the team's map markers, areas and boundary lines on top of the live positions. Tap a marker or area to see details, exactly as on mobile.

Hunt room info

In the event chat for the hunt event, tap the room title to open Chat info, where you can see every RSVP'd participant with their team role and attending status. Handy for confirming who is actually on the ground without leaving the map.

Hunt chat

When a hunt starts, a dedicated chat is created for that hunt. The chat stays available after the hunt ends, so you can keep talking about it afterwards.

On the map, once you have joined the hunt, a chat-bubble button appears at the right edge, just above the radio button. Tap it to open the hunt chat directly.

You can also reach the chat from the summary of a finished hunt: tap "Hunt chat" at the top of the page.

Who can see the chat:

• If the hunt is linked to a calendar event: everyone who RSVP'd attending to that event can read and write.
• If the hunt is not linked to an event: only those who joined the hunt itself can read and write.

What happens during the hunt shows up in the chat

The app writes short lines into the hunt chat on its own while the hunt is running, so everyone can follow along without looking at the map:

• When someone logs a sighting, a downed animal, a wounded animal or tracks, for example "Kalle downed moose".
• When someone joins or leaves the hunt.

The lines sit in the middle of the chat, with no speech bubble. They cannot be replied to, edited or deleted. Tap a line about an observation and it opens on the map. If the hunt is over, the hunt log opens instead.

Lines about observations count as unread like other messages. Lines about who joined or left do not, so the chat button does not light up for every hunter who arrives.

Stale participants

Two staleness thresholds apply:

• Visual staleness (5 minutes): if a hunter has not reported a new position for five minutes, their marker is greyed out with the label "Stale". Common causes: phone in poor coverage, battery dead, app force-closed. The session is still running.
• Auto-end (4 hours): if no participant at all has reported a position for 4 hours, the system ends the session automatically. The session then appears in replay mode with the existing tracks.

If position sharing gets paused (Android)

Some Android phones (notably OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi) shut down apps that work in the background to save battery. If this happens during a hunt, your teammates may stop seeing your position even though the app looks fine.

When Jaktli detects that position sharing has paused, the app shows a warning bar at the top of the map: "Others may not see your position". Tap Resume to restart sharing.

The first time you start a hunt on Android, Jaktli asks if it may run in the background. Tap Allow, then tap Allow again in the system dialog. This is the single most important step. Without it Android will pause position sharing as soon as the screen is locked.

To avoid the pause altogether, also do the following:

1. Open Settings on your phone.
2. Look for Battery or Apps.
3. Find Jaktli in the list.
4. Choose Don't restrict or Allow in background.
5. On OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo and Huawei phones, also check for an Auto-launch or Auto-start setting and turn it on for Jaktli. These manufacturers shut down background apps more aggressively than Pixel phones.

These steps let the app keep sending your position even when the screen is off.

Log events during the hunt

On the map you can mark important events at the exact spot where they happened. Tap the event button, the orange one with a crosshair at the bottom centre of the map. First you choose the place on the map, then what it is:

• Sighting: you have seen game
• Downed game: an animal has been shot and fallen
• Wounded game: an animal is injured and needs tracking
• Tracks & signs: a track, blood, or droppings

Next you choose the animal. The most common animals show as picture buttons. Tap the one you want. If it is not there, tap All species to search the full list, or Other species to type a name yourself. The animals you report most often appear first.

Then you fill in the count. For a sighting you set how many you saw. For any animal you can also note how many were male, female, or young if you can tell them apart; the rest count as a mixed group. For downed and wounded game you can tap a single mark for male, female, or young.

For Tracks & signs you choose the kind of sign (track, blood, droppings, or other). The species can be left unknown, which is useful when you find blood but did not see the animal.

For a sighting or a wounded animal you can show where it went: tap Came from and point out on the map where the animal came from, then Went towards (for a wounded animal Fled towards) and point out where it went. The path is drawn on the map as a line with an arrow, so everyone in the team sees which way it disappeared. For a track you point out which way it leads. For a wounded animal you can also tap Add shot reaction and pick from the list, that is how it reacted when the shot went off: high leap, hind-leg kick, hunched back, stumbled forward, ran on three legs, sat down on its haunches, tossed its head, flinched, dropped and got back up, or no visible reaction. It is optional but a real help to whoever does the tracking.

Add a note and a photo if you like. The marker is saved at the place you chose.

The observation is saved on your phone and sent in the background. You can close the form and keep using the map right away. The marker appears on your own map at once, and the app sends it, and the photo, as soon as there is reception, retrying on its own. The rest of the team sees the observation once it has been sent. While something is waiting, a small box at the top of the map says so. If the app cannot send at all, tap Try again in that box. Everything stays on your phone until it has been sent.

Markers appear as icons on the map for everyone in the hunt. Tap a marker to read the details. The person who created the marker can edit it (change the type, animal, sex, count, direction, shot reaction, note, photo or even the location) or remove it.

Personal data processing

When you share, your coordinates are stored in the Jaktli database. Processing is based on consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) for participant safety during the hunt. Data is retained until the hunt, your participation, or your account is deleted. See Privacy policy for the full set of rights.