The Glympse app does require a data connection in order to report your location to anyone you've chosen to share it with. This data most likely does count towards the monthly data plan you have with your carrier. We are sensitive to the limitations of mobile devices and of mobile data costs, so we have engineered Glympse so that it uses a minimum amount of data and battery.
On average, when sharing a Glympse with someone else, the app will consume about 1MB of data per hour. The actual data usage will vary based on variety of factors including:
- the number of people with whom you are sharing your location
- whether you are also viewing someone else
- the amount of interaction (panning and zooming) that you have with map screen while viewing
- the type of connection, etc.
Map tiles tend to make up most of the data traffic when using the Glympse map, so you can minimize data usage while sharing location with others by navigating away from the map screen or simply moving the Glympse app to the background.