onX Offroad Location Sharing: Real-time Buddy Pins, zero extra hardware, and group tracking for up to 10 riders — built right into the app you already use.
You know how it goes. The trail splits. Someone takes the sportier line. Someone else stops to air down. Your buddy with the rooftop tent decides to detour for a summit view. And suddenly, a group of ten becomes a scattered string of rigs spread across twenty miles of dirt with no clean way to find each other.
Group overlanding is one of the greatest experiences this lifestyle has to offer — and coordinating it is one of the biggest headaches. Radios only work line-of-sight. Texts don’t send in the backcountry. And stopping to wait at every junction eats daylight you don’t have.
onX Offroad just fixed it!
onX Offroad Location Sharing — the app’s newest feature — puts your entire crew on one live map in real time. No satellite communicators. No third-party apps. No extra hardware strapped to your dash. Just the onX Offroad app you already carry, now with the ability to see exactly where everyone is, all at once.
What Is onX Offroad Location Sharing?
Location Sharing is a real-time group tracking feature built natively into the onX Offroad app. When you activate it, every member of your group appears on a shared map as a color-coded Buddy Pin — live, updating every 15 seconds, showing online/offline status at a glance.
The setup is fast. The trip leader taps “Go & Track” in the bottom toolbar, selects “Share Location,” and sends an invite link via text or messenger to up to 10 people. When each rider joins, their Buddy Pin appears on the shared map immediately. That’s it. Everyone’s on the same page — literally.
A green ring around a Buddy Pin means that rider is live and actively sharing. If someone drops signal and their location hasn’t refreshed in 15 seconds, the pin goes grey — but their last known location stays visible on the map with a timestamp. It’s not a perfect substitute for cell service, but it gives you real, actionable information instead of silence.
Why This Matters for Overlanders
Group communication has always been one of overlanding’s unsolved problems. Ham radios require licensing. GMRS radios require proximity and line-of-sight. Satellite communicators like Garmin inReach are excellent tools, but they cost hundreds of dollars per device — and you need one for every person in your group. Asking ten people to each carry a satellite communicator before a weekend run is unrealistic.
Location Sharing doesn’t replace a satellite communicator for true deep-backcountry emergency comms. It requires a cellular connection to start a session and push updates. But for the overwhelming majority of group overlanding scenarios — forest roads, OHV parks, desert washes, mountain passes — you have enough cell signal to make this work. And the value it delivers in those scenarios is massive.
Think about the last time you ran a trail with a mixed-skill group. Fast rigs at the front, slower builds at the back. Someone pulls over to fix a mechanical. Someone wants to stop and photograph the scenery. Without Location Sharing, the trip leader is constantly doing radio checks, pulling over to wait, or backtracking to find the stragglers. With it, one glance at the map tells you everything — where your crew is, whether they’re moving, and whether anyone has gone offline.
That’s not just convenience. That’s safety.
Who Can Use It — and How It Works
One of the best decisions onX made with Location Sharing is the access model. Basic, Premium, and Elite members can all join the same group session. The trip leader needs a paid membership to start the session, but anyone with an onX Offroad account — even at the Basic tier — can receive an invite link and join.
That means you don’t need to pressure your whole crew to upgrade. Send the link, they tap join, they’re on the map. Done.
A few things worth knowing before your next run:
- Group size: Up to 10 riders or vehicles per session.
- Platform: Mobile only for now — iOS and Android. Start and join sessions from your phone.
- Connectivity: A cellular connection is required to initiate a session and push live updates. Plan accordingly.
- Privacy: Your location is only visible to members of your active session. When the session ends or you leave, all location data is permanently deleted. Nothing is stored.
- Offline backup: Always download an Offline Map of your run area before you leave pavement. Drop a Waypoint at a designated meet-up spot so even if cell drops, everyone knows where to converge.
Group management is clean. The trip leader can add or remove members mid-session, or end the group entirely from the Go & Track dashboard. If you need to leave the group yourself, tap the Location Sharing button and select “Leave Group.” Simple.
The Bottom Line
Group overlanding should be about the adventure — not the logistics of keeping your crew together. onX Offroad Location Sharing removes one of the most persistent friction points in group trail running and delivers it in a package that requires zero new gear, zero new subscriptions for most riders, and about thirty seconds to set up.
One map. Everyone on it. Less waiting, more moving.
If you’re not running onX Offroad Location Sharing yet, now’s the time. Start a free trial and try Location Sharing on your next group run by clicking HERE
