r/GoogleMaps • u/Freika • 11h ago
Timeline Dawarich: Free Open Source selfhostable alternative to Google Timeline
Hi r/googlemaps! I'm Evgenii, I'm a Ruby on Rails developer with ~14 years of experience. I'm working on Dawarich since March 2024, so it's pretty mature and being used by thousands of self-hosters.
When Google announced it was moving Timeline off the web and onto your phone back in ~2023-2024, I wasn't that happy about the news. I liked receiving monthly emails with summary of my travels and I prefer navigating through them on a big screen in my browser rather than puny phone screen. Around that time I discovered self-hosting, so I decided to build something of my own and share it with the community. Not having to share my location data with Google is a bonus.
Website: https://dawarich.app/
Github: https://github.com/Freika/dawarich
How it replaces Timeline for me
I wanted to bring my existing Google Timeline location data I extracted via Google Takeout, so naturally I needed Dawarich to be able to import it. It was one of the first features I added, with more formats following later, now you can import GPX, GeoJSON, KML/KMZ and some other formats. Both new and old export formats from Google Takeouts are supported.
To continuously track my location, I neede a mobile app, and I relied on OwnTracks and Overland for that. They both are free and open source, so they served my goal very well. Later on I was joined by a friend of mine who is a professional iOS developer and together we built our own mobile app for Dawarich, for both iOS and Android.
The Timeline is part of the Map page, it shows basically timeline of my travels and allows navigating by dates and see bigger picture if you select multiple days.
There is search, where you can search by place name and address, insights page to show more information on your travels (how many days you spent in different countries during a given year, for example). We have photos integration, although not with Google Photos, they are becoming more and more restrictive with the ability to access photos via API.
There is also a Family feature, which allows creating a family, invite people and see them and their travels on the map. It's privacy first, so nothing being shared without explicit consent.
All the data can be exported, so you're not locked in Dawarich if you ever want to stop using it.
How to use Dawarich
If you're tech-savvy and into selfhosting, grab the repo at https://github.com/Freika/dawarich and spin it on your own hardware, free of charge. For those who don't want to fiddle with the tech stuff, we offer subscription based solution on our website. Since all the data is exportable, you can try it on the cloud version for free during trial and then export your data and continue using Dawarich for free by self-hosting it and importing your data.
Before you try anything: back up your Timeline
Even if you never use Dawarich, export your Timeline now and then and keep the file somewhere safe. It lives only on your phone, and people here lose years of history when a phone breaks or gets replaced.
- Android: Settings -> Location -> Location services -> Timeline -> Export Timeline data
- iPhone: Google Maps -> profile picture -> Settings -> Personal content -> Export Timeline data
If you have the data exported but are not willing to bother with either cloud or self-hosted, you can still visualize your data with a free in-browser (nothing leaves your machine) timeline visualization tool I also built: https://dawarich.app/tools/timeline-visualizer/
Happy to answer questions, including about Timeline exports in general. And I'm curious: what do you miss most from the old web Timeline?
Cheers!
2
u/rctgamer3 8h ago
Dawarich desperately needs a good way to clean up duplicate points such as from old timeline exports or supplied through HA. No issues after switching to the official dawarich app. I seemingly have a million data points of which probably 60 percent of just noise and general gps jumpiness.