First run

The six setup screens, what each permission enables, and what stays unavailable without it.

The first time you open the app it walks you through six setup screens. The whole thing takes about a minute.

Take your time with it: almost everything the app does on its own depends on the permissions requested here, such as recording a trip with the phone in your pocket, saving where the car was left, delivering a reminder and finding the adapter. Nothing you choose here is final, and every permission can be granted later in App Permissions. Until then those features stay partial or switched off.

  1. Welcome

    The opening screen of the app. Tap Next.

  2. What you can do

    A summary of the six areas of the app: live data, trips, diagnostics, expenses, smart home and safe driving. Tap Next.

  3. Precise location

    Tap Allow precise location and confirm in the system dialog. Once the permission is granted the screen shows Permission granted and the button disappears.

    This permission carries everything that involves position, and it reaches further than drawing a line on a map:

    • The trip route, with the real path and the distance covered, and not only the start and end points.
    • Recognizing that you are driving, which is what allows the app to start recording on its own and to offer the action that fits the moment.
    • Filling in the address automatically for a fill-up, an expense or a parking spot.
    • Trip playback, which ties every sensor reading to the point on the map where it was taken.

    Choose the precise option rather than the approximate one. Approximate location is accurate to within hundreds of meters, enough to distort the route and to place the parking spot on the next block.

    On Android 11 and earlier the system also requires this permission to scan for Bluetooth devices. Without it the app cannot find the adapter.

  4. Background location

    This is the most important permission of the process, and also the easiest one to grant halfway. Tap Allow all the time.

    The permission from the previous step counts only while the app is open on screen. This one carries:

    • Recording that continues after the screen locks and the phone goes into your pocket, which is what every real trip looks like.
    • Saving the parking spot, which happens the moment the trip ends, when the app is rarely in the foreground.
    • The background service. On Android 14 and later the service that keeps the recording alive is declared as a location service, and the system does not allow it to start without a matching permission.

    The order is mandatory. On Android 11 and later the system accepts the background request only after the previous one has been granted. If the previous step was denied or skipped, the app holds the tap on purpose, so that the system does not open the settings with no explanation.

    Still on Android 11 and later, granting it happens in two stages: first the ordinary dialog, with the "While using the app" option, and then a separate system screen where all-the-time access has to be selected. Completing the first stage and stopping at the second is the most common cause of trips that break off the moment the screen locks.

    The name of the option varies between Android versions and between Android and iPhone. Look for the choice that grants location access always, and not only with the app open.

  5. Notifications

    Tap Allow notifications.

    On Android this permission does more than show alerts: it is a requirement of the foreground service behind the persistent notification shown while a trip is being recorded. Without the permission the system shuts the service down and the recording stops with it.

    The same permission delivers the parking alarm, the maintenance reminders and the vehicle fault alerts.

  6. Sign in or skip

    The last screen, Sign in to sync, offers two ways out. Sign In opens access through Google or Apple and restores your data if you have used the app before. Signing in uses no password, so there is no password for you to create and none for us to keep.

    Skip and finish goes straight to registering the vehicle. The app works in full this way, with the data kept on the phone.

    You can sign in later without losing anything you recorded while using the app without an account.

  7. What will still be asked for later

    Setup does not end here, and the split is deliberate: the remaining permissions are requested at the moment they start to make sense, rather than all at once at install time.

    • Bluetooth, on the Connection screen, when you go looking for an adapter.
    • Motion and physical activity, which tells driving apart from walking or riding a bus. With it the app wakes up and reconnects only when you are in the car, which saves battery and avoids questions about trips where you are a passenger.
    • Battery optimization, on Android, so that the system stops ending background work.
    • Camera and microphone, only if you use the dashcam or the photo of the parking spot.

    The App Permissions screen, in the side menu, gathers every permission and shows the state of each one.

If something goes wrong

The permission from the previous step was not granted. On Android 11 and later the system accepts the background request only once foreground location exists, and the app holds the tap instead of opening the settings with no explanation.

Go back to the Precise location step, grant the permission, and the next button starts working.

In most cases the permission was granted only halfway. On Android 11 and later background location happens in two stages: the ordinary dialog and then a separate system screen. Accepting the first and not selecting the second leaves the app with access only while it is open.

Open the phone settings, go to the Car 2 Home permissions, choose location and select the all-the-time option.

On Android, check the battery optimization as well: several manufacturers end background work even when location is in order.

No. Each permission is requested again on the screen that depends on it: Bluetooth on the Connection screen, and location on the first trip or in Parking.

The app also warns you once, when a trip starts, if it finds that it only has the foreground permission, and it honors the request not to show that warning again.

To grant them all at once, use App Permissions, in the side menu.

Approximate location is accurate to within hundreds of meters. In practice the route comes out distorted, the trip distance is wrong and the parking spot points at the next block.

In the phone settings, under the app permissions, turn on use precise location.

On Android the two are tied together: the persistent notification is what keeps the foreground service alive, and without the permission the system ends the service. Grant the permission in the phone settings.

The message appears when the app has been used on this phone before, or when an iPhone restored a stored session. Tap Not you? and then Use another account.

The request still makes sense. Trips, parking and automatic addresses work without an adapter, and they are exactly the features that depend on position.

If you do not plan to use them you can deny the permission: recording fill-ups, expenses, services and reminders keeps working normally.

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