Everything the app can do, feature by feature.

What Moto Watchdog is

Moto Watchdog is the companion app for Moto Watchdog 4G GPS trackers. The tracker has lifetime 4G built in, so there is no monthly subscription — you buy the hardware once and it keeps reporting.

The app does five broad things:

• Shows you where things are, live, on a map — one vehicle or a whole fleet.
• Records every trip automatically, with route, distance, duration, speed and events, going back months.
• Tells you when something happens — a vehicle moves, speeds, leaves a zone, gets towed, throws a check-engine code, or runs low on battery.
• Keeps the paperwork — fuel costs, maintenance reminders, service history, mileage reports for tax.
• Lets other people in, carefully — family, drivers, dispatchers or customers, each seeing only what you decide.

It works for cars, motorcycles, trucks, vans, boats, trailers, plant equipment and non-vehicle assets like luggage, tool bags or pets.

Creating an account and signing in

Creating an account

From the welcome screens, tap Create an account. You can sign up with your phone's own account — Sign in with Apple on iPhone and iPad, Sign in with Google on Android — which is fastest and leaves no password to remember, or with email: full name, email address and a password of at least 8 characters. You'll be asked to agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy before the account is created.

If you were given a promo code or invitation code, there are optional fields for them during sign-up.

Signing in

• Email and password.
• Sign in with Apple (iOS) or Sign in with Google (Android).
• Keep me signed in keeps your session alive between launches.

Face ID and Touch ID

After your first successful sign-in the app offers to enable biometric unlock. Turn it on and you sign in with a look or a touch instead of typing a password. Your login stays on that device, and your device passcode works as a backup. If you skip it, you can turn it on later under Settings → Privacy & security.

Forgotten password

Tap Forgot your password?, enter your email, and you'll be emailed a reset code. Enter the code and choose a new password. Reset codes expire after 30 minutes and work once. Your trackers keep recording the whole time.

Joining someone else's account

If somebody invited you, you'll see an Invitation Request during onboarding — accept it to share their tracking, or ignore it and set up your own devices instead. You can also join later: Users → My Invitations → Enter Code.

Permissions the app asks for

Two permissions, both explained on screen during setup, both optional, both changeable later in your phone's Settings.

Location — always

Shows your own position next to your vehicles and powers zone-related features. Without it, your own position won't appear on the map — your vehicles still track normally.

Notifications

Delivers trip, tow, geofence and speeding alerts the moment they happen. Without it, alerts still land in the in-app Alerts inbox, but your phone stays silent.

Tap Set up later in Settings to skip either one. If you decline notifications, the Alerts screen shows a banner — tap it to jump straight to your phone's notification settings for Moto Watchdog.

The guided tour and the in-app App Guide

The tour

A short walkthrough runs the first time you sign in, covering the live map, trips, geofences, trip sharing, and users and roles. It's replayable any time from Settings → App tour.

The App Guide

More → Need Help? opens the App Guide — 22 interactive walkthroughs that show you a mock version of each screen, highlight exactly what to tap, and then offer to open the real screen for you. You can browse it three ways:

• By track — Just unboxed (setting up your first tracker), Adding more (a second vehicle or another person), or Fleet setup (running a team of drivers).
• By category — Getting started, Alerts & zones, People & access, Everyday use, Reports & records, Personalize.
• By search — every walkthrough is searchable by keyword, so typing "oil change" or "expire link" finds the right one.

Each walkthrough shows an estimated time; most are 1–4 minutes.

Activating your first tracker

Have the tracker — or the card from the box — in hand. You need the Registration Code and the PIN, both printed on the card in the box and on the label on the back of the tracker.

1. Open the menu (top-left of any screen) and tap Add device.
2. Enter the Registration Code and PIN — or tap Scan QR code to read them off the instruction manual with your camera and skip the typing.
3. Name it. "Shop Van" beats "Device 4" when an alert lands at midnight. You can rename it any time.
4. Tell the app what you're tracking — a vehicle, or something else (see Device tags). This sets the right icon and the right setup tips.
5. Optionally add make, model and year (or a VIN), which personalizes the vehicle image and stats.
6. Acknowledge the calibration step — this differs by hardware, see below.
7. Plug it in / power it on and wait for the first ping. Park somewhere with open sky. The first location usually arrives within a couple of minutes, and the marker turns green when it does.

Calibration by hardware type

Every new tracker needs a short calibration run before locations are reliable. The app shows the right instruction for your unit:

OBD units

Plug into the vehicle's OBD-II port, then drive 5–10 miles (or 5–10 km on metric units).

Battery / personal

Charge fully, power on, then take a 5–10 minute walk.

Hardwire units

Black wire to the negative terminal post, red wire to the positive terminal post, orange wire optionally to the ACC switch, then drive 5–10 minutes. (The yellow wire isn't used yet; it's reserved for future fuel-relay control.)

Charging notes for battery units

Once fully charged, the red light on the device turns off. Battery percentage in the app may lag, because the tracker only reports battery level alongside a location update — not at the moment the light turns off.

Your phone never pairs or connects to the tracker directly. All data travels over the tracker's own cellular connection, not Bluetooth.

Adding more trackers

Same flow every time: menu → Add device. There's no limit imposed by the app, and no per-device monthly fee.

Finding your way around

The app is map-first: a live map is home, with a slide-out menu for everything else.

• The menu button (top-left of every screen) slides out the full navigation: Live Map, Devices, Trips, Alerts, then Manage (Geofences, Curfews, Reports, Users, Permission Groups, Vehicle Diagnostics, Maintenance, Fuel Expenses, Insights, Shop, What's New, Need Help?) and Settings.
• The More screen gathers the same destinations as tappable tiles, plus your profile, appearance switch, a live server-connection indicator, and shortcuts to Help and Settings.
• What you see depends on your permissions. If your role or permission group doesn't grant access to Reports, the Reports tile simply isn't there.

A dark/light appearance toggle sits in the top-right of the More screen for quick switching.

Live Map

The live map is home base. Every powered-on tracker appears as a marker, updating as new positions arrive.

Reading the map

• Marker color tells you state at a glance — green when parked, accent color when moving.
• Tap a marker to select that vehicle. A sheet peeks up from the bottom with status, current speed and when it last reported.
• Pull the sheet up for the full detail: trips, share, edit, diagnostics.
• Follow vehicle locks the camera onto that vehicle so it stays centered as it moves.

Controls

Search this map

Find a vehicle by name when you have a large fleet.

Previous / Next vehicle

Step through your fleet one at a time.

Show all / selected

Declutter the map down to the one vehicle you care about.

Satellite toggle

Switch between the road map and Google satellite imagery.

Map settings

Polylines, traffic, data points, refresh behavior — see Map appearance.

Fullscreen

Hide the app chrome for the biggest possible map.

Show / hide details

Collapse the info sheet out of the way.

Center on device

Snap the camera back to the vehicle you've selected.

Theme

Flip between dark and light.

Fleet at a glance

The map header summarizes your fleet — how many devices are on the account and how many are moving right now. The sheet lists every vehicle with its status, last-seen time and a tap-through to the vehicle screen.

Pinning a vehicle

Pin to front keeps one vehicle first in the map's swipe order and in your fleet list. It's a local preference on that device — handy when you have twenty trackers but only care about one day to day. Pinning is also what enables Live Activities for that vehicle.

Live trips

When a vehicle is moving, a green LIVE banner appears. Tap it to open the live trip screen and follow along.

If the map can't load

You'll get a clear message rather than a spinner forever — "Can't reach the tracker", with the option to Show last known position. The app keeps retrying in the background.

Devices — your fleet list

The roster for everything on your account. Use it when you want a list instead of a map. Each row shows the vehicle's status, when it was last seen, and taps through to the full vehicle screen.

• Search the list by nickname.
• Sort devices by Device ID, last Updated, or Name, ascending or descending. Sorting by Updated puts whatever reported most recently at the top.
• Load more devices pages through large fleets.

The vehicle screen

Tap any vehicle from the map or the devices list. This is the hub for one tracker.

At the top

• The vehicle image is a button — tap it to open Vehicle Studio and change how it looks.
• Live stats carousel — current speed, battery level, fuel level, coolant temperature, engine load, RPM, throttle position, air flow, intake air temperature, manifold pressure, and overall health. What appears depends on what your hardware reports; the engine readings come from the OBD+ only.
• Status — Parked, Moving, Idle, Stopped or Towed, plus engine on/off where the hardware knows.

Device Data

Battery level and bar, voltage, vehicle battery voltage, number of satellites connected, and signal strength — the technical readout for when you want to know why something isn't reporting.

Health

Vehicle Diagnostics for trouble codes and alerts — OBD+ only (section 19) — and Maintenance for service records and reminders, on every model (20–21).

Quick actions

Live location

Opens the map focused on this vehicle.

Trip History

This vehicle's trips only.

Share Trips

Create and manage standing share links (section 29).

Vehicle Studio

Change the body style, color or photo.

Directions

Route to the vehicle's last known location in your maps app.

Weather

Current conditions and air quality index at the vehicle's location.

Commands

Send configuration commands (section 33) to the tracker.

Tracking

Device Tag — what this tracker is attached to (32). Energy Mode — how often it reports (30). ACC Detection — ignition awareness on hardwire units (31).

Alerts

Speeding, Movement and Wake Up alerts are per-vehicle rules, each with its own threshold (section 15). Notifications overrides your account-wide choices for just this vehicle (14). Each row shows its current state in the subtitle, so you can see at a glance that speeding is "On · 10 MPH over the limit" without opening it.

At the bottom

Edit Device — nickname, category, drivers, speed limit, odometer and more (section 34). Delete Device — removes the tracker and all its data from your account, permanently. You'll be asked to confirm.

Trips — live and historical

While a trip is happening

When a vehicle starts moving, a trip opens automatically and a green LIVE banner appears on the map and vehicle screens. Tap it for the live trip screen, where the route line draws itself as new positions arrive — usually every few seconds — with distance and duration ticking up alongside. You can End Trip manually, though trips close themselves according to your trip settings.

Trip history

Menu → Trips lists every journey, grouped by day, with Today and Yesterday labelled. Trips are named automatically by time of day ("Charlotte morning trip") until you rename them. At the top: counts for the last 24h, this week and this month.

Sorting and filtering

Sort by newest first, oldest first, longest distance or shortest distance. The Filter chip opens a sheet for:

• Date range — start and end date.
• Trip type — Business only, Personal only, or both.
• Drivers — one or several.
• Vehicles — one or several.

The sheet shows how many trips match before you apply it, and active filters are summarized on the chip.

Editing a trip

Edit Trip sets the nickname, the trip type (Business or Personal — this tagging is what makes the mileage report worth running at tax time, on OBD units), and the driver.

Deleting and exporting

• Delete trip — one trip.
• Delete all trips on [date] — a whole day.
• Delete all trips shown in the search results — everything matching your current filter.
• Export Trip / Export All Trips — queues a downloadable trip report. See Reports.

Trip settings

Settings → Trip Settings controls the wait time to process trip data — how long a vehicle must sit still before the app considers the trip finished. A longer window merges brief stops into a single trip; a shorter window splits them apart. If you keep getting three trips for one school run, lengthen the window. By default, trips are marked complete after a sustained halt in location updates.

Trip replay and trip detail

Open any finished trip and you get a playable recording, not just a line on a map.

The map

Start and End pins, with the full route between them. Route mode changes how the path is drawn:

• Optimized — location points snapped to follow the road network. Best for reading a route at a glance.
• Raw — points exactly as the device sent them. Use this when you need precision and don't want any smoothing.
• Default for device — Hardwire and OBD units use Optimized; battery units use Raw.

Playback

The playback bar gives you play/pause, a scrubber you can drag to any moment, and a speed control that cycles through 4x, 16x and 64x — enough to move through a long haul quickly. The marker follows the recorded path as it plays.

The detail sheet

Summary

Distance, duration, top speed, maximum posted limit, start and end addresses, driver, trip type.

Locations

Every recorded point, with time, address and speed.

Events

Everything notable that happened during the trip.

Trip events

Speeding events show both numbers — "42.0 mph (limit: 30 mph)" — so the context is never missing.

Extra map layers for trips

Under map settings you can turn on speed lines (color-coded by speed), data points (show every raw position), and speed violations (highlight where the posted limit was exceeded — this requires speed violations to be activated on the device).

Live Activities on the Lock Screen

For your pinned vehicle, Moto Watchdog can run a Live Activity while a trip is in progress, so you can follow along without opening the app. You get:

• A Lock Screen card with speed, status and the road it's on.
• Glanceable updates in the Dynamic Island.
• An elapsed timer that counts up from the trip's start, and freezes when the engine goes off or the trip ends.
• The road name and a "near [town]" line, plus how long ago the tracker last reported.

It only appears while a live trip is actually running, and disappears when the trip ends. The app explains this and asks before enabling it the first time. To use it: pin a vehicle (Pin to front from the map or devices list), then accept the Live Activity prompt.

The Alerts inbox

Push notifications are the heads-up. Alerts is the archive — everything that fired, including ones you dismissed, with the time, place and context. Open it from the menu or the bell badge.

Filters

All, Engine, Geofence, Trips (trip status, trip length, trip speed) and Driving (harsh acceleration, harsh braking, fatigue driving, speeding). Unread items stay highlighted until you open them or mark them read.

Actions

• Tap an alert to investigate — most open the related vehicle or trip, so you can see the route, the speed and the map pin without hunting.
• Mark read on a single alert.
• Options → Mark all as read.
• Options → Delete all notifications (with a confirmation, since it can't be undone).

If the inbox is noisy, trim your push notification settings first — Alerts will get quieter as a result.

Rich alerts

Certain urgent events arrive as detailed notifications with their own screens:

SOS Alert

An SOS has been triggered from the tracker. Shows the tracker's location and the time of the alert.

Tow Movement

The device detected irregular movement — the vehicle may be moving while powered off.

Tamper Alert

The device may have been tampered with.

Low Battery

The tracker needs charging.

Fatigue Driving

The device detected fatigue driving.

New Trouble Code

The engine reported a new fault code. OBD+ only.

Push and email notification settings

Most people turn everything on, get overwhelmed in a week, then turn everything off. A better plan: push for things that need you now, email for things you'll read on Sunday. Both live under Settings → Preferences.

Push notifications

Engine & device

Engine status (vehicle turned on or off) · Virtual parameter · Device low battery · Device updates · Wake up alerts

Trips

Trip started · Trip ended · Trip length (a trip exceeded your threshold) · Trip speed (average speed exceeded your threshold)

Driving events

Harsh brake · Harsh acceleration · Speeding alerts · Movement alerts · Curfew

General

Alerts · Low fuel · Geofence · Export alerts (a report you queued is ready) · Maintenance reminder

Per-vehicle overrides

By default every vehicle uses your account settings. To change one vehicle only: from Push notifications tap Vehicles and pick one, or from the vehicle screen tap Notifications. The screen shows whether that vehicle is Using your account settings or Customized for this vehicle. Tap Use account defaults to put it back. Overrides affect only that vehicle — this is how you give a work truck and a teenager's car very different rules.

Email settings

Trip summaries and weekly reports read much better in an inbox than as a buzz in your pocket. Email Settings controls which events are emailed to your account, and shows which address they're going to. Opt out all emails turns off the lot in one tap.

If your phone stays quiet

Check that Moto Watchdog has notification permission in your phone's own Settings. The Alerts screen shows a banner if permission was declined — tap it to go straight there.

Per-vehicle rules: speeding, movement, wake-up

These three live on the vehicle screen, and each one is set per vehicle with its own threshold. All three follow the same pattern: an enable switch, a threshold slider, a live preview of the notification you'd receive, and an explanation of exactly when it fires.

Speeding Alerts

Notifies you when the detected speed goes a set amount above the posted limit — not above a fixed number. The threshold is in MPH or km/h over the limit. Where road speed-limit data is available, the alert includes both figures: "52 mph in a 35 mph zone · Whitney Ave".

You also need Speeding switched on under Push notifications for the alert to reach your phone at all. Every speeding event lands in the Alerts list with the time, place and top speed, even if you dismissed the notification.

Movement Alerts

Notifies you when the tracker moves a set distance from a standstill — measured in feet, where GPS accuracy allows. This is the one for "tell me if my bike moves at all". Set the trigger distance low for theft detection, higher to avoid GPS drift on a tightly parked vehicle.

Wake Up Alerts

Notifies you when the device wakes up after a set period of inactivity. Useful for assets that should be sitting still: if a trailer that hasn't moved in three days suddenly wakes up, you want to know.

Geofences

A geofence is a shape on a map with a rule attached. Most people start with one around home and one around work — then you stop wondering whether the car made it. Menu → Geofences lists the zones you've drawn, each with a switch to pause it without deleting.

Creating one

Tap the + button. Nothing saves until you confirm, so it's safe to experiment.

1. Name it — "Home", "Depot", "Job site".
2. Set the area. Two shapes: Circle — drop a pin and set a radius, located by searching an address (street, unit, city, state, postal code), by entering coordinates in decimal degrees (negative values are south and west), or by dragging the map. Draw shape — tap the map to add at least 3 points to form a polygon, for oddly shaped properties. A radius of 150–300 m suits most driveways without false alarms.
3. Choose what triggers an alert — entry, exit, or both. If a zone is somewhere a vehicle sits all day, pick one direction only: you'll get half the notifications and none of the noise.
4. Optionally add a schedule. Turn on Only monitor on set days & times and pick the days of the week plus a time window. Otherwise the zone is always monitoring.
5. Pick which devices it watches — one, several, or all of them.
6. Save. It's live immediately, no restart needed.

Geofence logs

Open a zone and tap Logs to see every enter and exit event recorded against it, newest first, with Load more for the full history. Zone detail also shows which devices are assigned, and which are currently inside.

Editing and deleting

Open a zone to rename it, Edit shape, change the alert directions or schedule, reassign devices, or Delete geofence (permanent). Alerts from geofences appear in the Alerts inbox, and as a push notification if you have Geofence switched on.

Curfews

Curfews watch the clock, not the map. You get an alert if a vehicle moves during hours you've set — good for teen drivers, fleet vehicles parked overnight, or any window when movement should mean something's wrong. Menu → Curfews lists your schedules, showing which vehicles each covers and whether it's currently active.

Creating one

1. Name it — "School nights", "Weekend lockdown".
2. Set the active hours — a start and end time. Windows that cross midnight are supported and labelled overnight.
3. Set the repeat — Every day, Weekdays, Weekends, or pick individual days.
4. Assign devices — one vehicle or several.
5. Save. When movement is detected inside the window, you get an alert immediately.

Managing them

• Each curfew shows Active now or Scheduled, and whether it's Actively watching for movement or Saved but not monitoring.
• Pause a curfew with its switch rather than deleting it — handy for vacations or a run of late shifts.
• Delete Curfew removes it for good.

The header summarizes the lot: "4 curfews · 2 active".

Points of Interest

More → Points of Interest keeps a list of places that matter to you — your mechanic, favorite fuel stations, customer sites, storage yards. Add a POI with a name and a location, edit it, or delete it.

POIs are saved places for reference, separate from geofences, which trigger alerts.

Vehicle DiagnosticsOBD+ only

Menu → Vehicle Diagnostics (also reachable from the Health section of any vehicle screen) covers everything the engine has reported, for the whole fleet or filtered to one vehicle.

Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs)

Codes are grouped into Unresolved and Resolved tabs, each tagged Low, Medium or High severity. Open a code and you get a plain-English breakdown:

When the work is done, Mark as resolved moves it to the Resolved tab. Reopen issue puts it back if the fault returns. When there's nothing to report you get a straight answer: "You're all clear — no active diagnostic trouble codes on this vehicle." A new code also triggers a DTC push notification, if you have that switched on.

PID data

View PID Data streams live OBD-II parameters from the device in real time: air flow rate, engine coolant temperature, intake manifold absolute pressure, engine RPM, intake air temperature, vehicle speed, mileage, calculated load value, and fuel level input.

Vehicle stats

Battery level and bar, voltage, vehicle battery voltage, RPM, coolant temperature, engine load, throttle position, satellites connected, signal strength. Battery health reads as Healthy, Partially Discharged or Fully Discharged.

Vehicle information

VIN, make, model, year and odometer where your hardware reports them. For units that don't report a VIN, you can enter make, model and year manually to personalize the vehicle.

Charge and fuel stats

Vehicles can be categorized as Electric Vehicle or Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle, which switches the app between Charge Stats and Fuel Stats.

Maintenance reminders

Because the tracker reads actual mileage, a reminder set at 5,000 miles fires when the vehicle has really driven 5,000 miles — not when the calendar says it might have.

Creating a reminder

1. Choose the vehicle.
2. Choose the job from the built-in list, or Custom with your own title.
3. Set the interval — a deadline date, a target odometer reading, or both, whichever comes first. That last option is what most workshops recommend.
4. Optionally add tags and notes.
5. Save.

Living with reminders

Reminders show their status plainly: Due in 1,200 mi, Due on 12 March, Due in 3 days, Overdue 400 mi, Was due 6 days ago. You'll be nudged as the mileage approaches and again when it's due, if Maintenance reminder is on in your push settings. Mark as Completed closes it out — and the app offers to create a matching service record for you at the same time.

Service records

Reminders tell you something is due. Service records prove it was done — a paper trail for warranties, resale and fleet audits. Menu → Maintenance → Service Records.

Logging work

Required

Date of service · Work performed

Optional

Work performed at (the shop or location) · Work performed by · Mileage at service · Cost · Invoice / receipt number · Notes · Tags

Fill in what you have. Once saved, a record stays on the vehicle for the life of the account.

Tags

Tags help you find similar jobs later. The built-in set covers job type (Oil Change, Brake Service, Preventative Maintenance, Emergency Repair, Warranty Service…), who did it (Authorized Dealer, Independent Mechanic, DIY Service, Fleet Maintenance Provider), payment state (Out of Pocket, Insurance Claim, Warranty Coverage, Pending Payment, Fully Paid, Overdue), the symptom (Noise Issue, Vibration Issue, Electrical Problem, Overheating, Fluid Leak, Performance Drop), and modifications (Upgrades, Custom Parts, Accessories Installation, Body Work, Paint Job). You can also create your own.

Fuel expenses

Two taps at the pump, and after a month you know exactly what each vehicle costs to run. Menu → Fuel Expenses, or the Fuel tile on More.

Logging a fill-up

• Vehicle and date.
• Quantity and units — Gallons or Liters.
• Price per unit and/or total amount — enter two of the three and the app calculates the third.
• Odometer — optional, but it's what makes the cost-per-mile figure accurate.
• Station or address — the app can find the station from the vehicle's location at the time.
• Notes, and a receipt image if you want a record for taxes.

The summary

Pick a period (including This year and a Custom Date Range) and you get total fuel spend with the change vs the previous period, total volume, average price per unit, cost per mile / per km, a by-vehicle breakdown, and recent fill-ups. Two or three fill-ups in, the cost-per-mile figure settles down and becomes genuinely useful.

Fill-up history

See full fill-up history opens the complete list, searchable by station, vehicle or amount, and filterable by vehicle and date range (All dates, Last 30 days, or custom). Each entry can be edited or deleted, and shows whether a receipt is attached.

Insights

More → Insights is the at-a-glance analytics screen. Each chart has its own period selector.

Trip Overview

Total completed trips — last 24 hours · 7 days · 30 days

Miles by Driver

Last 7 days · 30 days

Fuel Expenses by Vehicle

Last 24 hours · 7 days · 30 days

Idle Time by Driver

Last 24 hours · 7 days · 30 days

Idle Time by Device

Last 24 hours · 7 days · 30 days

Reports and exports

Reports pull from data the tracker has already collected, so there's nothing to set up in advance. Menu → Reports.

Building a report

1. Pick a type — the available types come from the server and include mileage, trip and idle reports. Mileage for taxes, driving scores for coaching, speeding violations for the conversation you'd rather have with data than without.
2. Give it a title (optional).
3. Pick a date range — start and end date.
4. Pick the devices — one, several, or Select All.
5. Send Email — toggle on to have it emailed when it's ready.
6. Create. The report goes into a queue, and you get a notification once it's processed (via the Export alerts notification type).

Getting the file

Completed reports appear in the list with a download link. Links are CSV, and each link is valid for 30 minutes — download it before it expires, or reload the screen to generate a fresh one. Report rows show their status: Waiting, Processing, Completed or Error Occurred. For each report you can Copy Link, Open Link, Edit Nickname, Resend Email, Refresh, or Delete.

Exporting trips directly

From the Trips screen you can also Export Trip (one trip) or Export All Trips / Export trips shown in the search results, which queues a downloadable trip report using your current filter. The result lands in the same Reports list, and Export History keeps a record of what you've generated.

Users, invitations and roles

Sharing doesn't mean giving away control. Roles decide what someone can do, and you can change or revoke access at any moment without touching the device. Menu → Users has three tabs: Users, Sent Invitations and My Invitations.

Inviting someone

1. Tap Invite user.
2. Enter their email address — the invitation goes there and they create their own password. Never share your own login.
3. Pick their role.
4. Choose their devices — everything, or just the vehicles they need.
5. Send invitation.

They get an email straight away with a code to join your account. Until they accept, the invite sits under Sent Invitations where you can cancel it. Invitations expire after seven days.

Roles

Owner

You. Full control over everything. Stays you.

Administrator

Manage devices, alerts and settings.

Viewer

See location and history — view access only.

For anything more granular than this, use permission groups.

Managing people

Change Role promotes or demotes an existing user; Remove revokes access immediately. Each user's row shows how many devices are shared with them and what level of access they have. Under My Invitations you can Accept, Decline or Ignore invitations to other accounts, and Enter Code to redeem an invitation code manually.

Permission groups

When you manage more than a handful of people, assigning rights one user at a time gets messy. Permission groups let you define "Dispatchers" or "Read-only finance" once and reuse them. Menu → Permission Groups.

Creating a group

1. Group title — name it for the job: "Yard managers", "Read-only finance".
2. Assigned users — search and pick the members. Everyone in the group receives the permissions below.
3. Allowed devices — limit which devices members can reach. Leave it empty to allow all devices.
4. The permissions matrix — for each resource, grant View, Edit, or neither. Checking Edit automatically grants View.
5. Save permission group.

Resources you can control

The app respects these throughout. If a group doesn't grant Reports, members simply don't see Reports anywhere — no tile, no menu entry. If it grants Trips as view-only, they can browse trips but not create share links. Change a group later and everyone in it picks up the new rights automatically — no re-invites.

Drivers, schedules and business trips

Default driver

Each device can have a default driver. Any trip that starts on that device is credited to them unless a schedule says otherwise.

Scheduled drivers

Drivers by schedule (from Edit Device) lets you add time blocks, each with days of the week, a time range, and a driver. When a trip starts inside a block, that driver is recorded on the trip. If no block matches, the device's default driver is used. Every block needs a driver and at least one day, and times use your account timezone — the same one business hours use.

This is how a shared van gets the right name on the right trip without anyone tapping anything.

Business hours

Turn on Enable Business Hours and set your business days and hours, and the app automatically marks trips as Business when they start during business hours. Everything else defaults to Personal, and you can override any individual trip from Edit Trip. That tagging is what makes mileage reports usable at tax time — mileage reports require OBD units.

Sharing a live trip

Trip sharing is for people outside your account — a customer waiting on a delivery, a spouse following a road trip. They only see what you share, and you can revoke the link instantly.

Turning it on

From the LIVE banner on the map, or from a trip in Trips history, open Share. Flip Share this trip live on and the app creates a link. Then Copy it, or send it through Messages, your Team, or your phone's share sheet.

What the recipient gets

Anyone with the link sees the live map in any browser. No app, no account, no login. Location only — no controls, no access to anything else on your account.

Expiry and revoking

Live trip links expire when the trip ends, and viewers lose access automatically. Stop sharing & revoke link ends it sooner — anyone currently watching loses access immediately, and the app confirms first since it's instant. For links that outlast a single trip, use device share links instead.

Device share links

Unlike sharing one live trip, device share links stay available until they expire or you revoke them. Ideal for a customer, dispatcher or family member who needs ongoing access to one vehicle. From the vehicle screen, tap Share Trips.

Creating a link

1. Name (optional) — otherwise it's "Link #1".
2. Trip access — past and in-progress trips, past trips only, or in-progress trips only.
3. Expiration — after a time period (4 hours, 24 hours, 3 days or 7 days), on a specific date and time, or Never.
4. Save, then copy the link and send it however you like.

Managing links

You can create several links per device — for example one for past trips only that never expires, and another for live jobs that expires in 24 hours. Each link in the list shows its scope and status: active with an expiry date, Expired, or Revoked. Revoke ends access immediately for anyone using it.

Energy Mode — how often your tracker reports

Energy Mode is the trade-off between accuracy and battery life. It's set per device, from the vehicle screen.

60 seconds

Highest accuracy · heaviest battery use

180 seconds

Near real-time tracking

30 minutes

Balanced accuracy and battery life

1 hour

Extended battery life

2 hours

Long battery life

4 hours

Very long battery life

6 hours

Maximum battery savings

12 hours

Longest possible battery life · checks twice a day

Hardwired and OBD units draw from the vehicle, so short intervals cost you nothing. Battery units are where this setting really matters.

Two things to know

Updates are transmitted only when the device is awake. By default, a tracker enters sleep mode after 15 minutes of no movement, and wakes on motion. While asleep it doesn't transmit location, to conserve battery. Contact support if you want sleep mode disabled — but expect significantly reduced battery life.

Changes are queued, not instant. When you change Energy Mode, the update goes to the device's command queue and is applied the next time the tracker comes online. If the device is asleep, nothing happens until it wakes.

ACC / ignition detection

For hardwire units with the orange wire connected to your ignition switch.

On — the tracker reads the orange wire's voltage to sense when the ignition is on. Trips and sleep then follow the ignition state: turn the key and a trip starts automatically; turn it off and the device sleeps to save power. The vehicle screen shows Ignition on or Ignition off live.

Off — the orange wire's voltage is ignored, and trips are detected from motion only.

You're asked to choose during hardwire setup — Continue with ACC detection or Continue without — and can change it any time from the vehicle screen.

Device tags

A device tag tells the app what the tracker is attached to. It sets the right icon on the map and the right setup tips, and it's how you tell a fleet of identical dots apart.

Vehicles

Everything else

Tags are searchable, so with a long list you can type instead of scroll. Change a tag any time from vehicle screen → Device Tag.

Commands and command history

Vehicle screen → Commands sends configuration commands directly to the tracker. The list of available commands comes from the server and depends on your specific hardware, so it stays current without an app update.

Restart tracker

Reboots the device.

Reporting frequency

How often it sends location.

Sleep delay

How long before it sleeps.

Motion sensitivity

How much movement counts as motion.

Ignition detection

Enables or disables ACC sensing.

Some commands just run; others ask you to pick a value from a list, with a sensible default pre-selected.

Connection required

Commands can only be sent while the tracker is connected. If it's offline, the screen tells you so, and when it was last connected. Commands are delivered to a connected tracker right away.

Status and history

Command history logs everything sent to the tracker, with timestamps: Queued (waiting for the tracker to connect), Sent (delivered), Confirmed (the tracker confirmed it applied the command), Failed (couldn't be reached — try again).

Some tracker protocols don't send a reply at all. On those devices the app treats Sent as final rather than implying a confirmation is still coming. The history also includes system commands the app sent on your behalf — activation, Energy Mode changes and so on — so you have one complete record.

Edit device

Vehicle screen → Edit Device is where the vehicle's own settings live:

• Nickname
• Category — Electric Vehicle or Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle
• Make, model, year and VIN
• Odometer / current mileage
• Speed limit for speeding alerts
• Default driver and Drivers by schedule
• Business hours rules

Changes apply everywhere the vehicle appears — map, trips, alerts and reports.

Vehicle Studio

Purely cosmetic, and worth the two minutes. When you have more than three vehicles, a red pickup and a white van are far quicker to read on a map than two identical dots. Open it by tapping the vehicle image at the top of the vehicle screen, or from Quick actions → Vehicle Studio.

Catalog vehicles

1. Pick a type — Car (Sedan, SUV…), Motorcycle, Truck, or Custom.
2. Pick the manufacturer from the list.
3. Pick the model, then the year.
4. Choose an angle — the catalog includes multiple views of each vehicle.
5. Choose a paint color from the swatches. Match the real vehicle if you can.
6. Save look.

Custom vehicles

Choose Custom to upload your own photo instead. Optionally add a make, model and year (a year must be between 1900 and 2100). A custom photo replaces the catalog image and the paint options. The look applies everywhere the vehicle appears.

Image catalog

More → Image Catalog stores photos and images you've uploaded — vehicle photos, profile pictures, receipts. Upload Image offers Take Photo, Camera Roll or Photo Library. Uploaded images can then be selected wherever the app asks for one.

Map appearance and behavior

Map settings

Map Auto Updates

Whether the map refreshes positions by itself.

Show Polylines

Draw route lines between points.

Show Data Points

Show every individual reported position.

Show Speed Lines

Color the route by speed.

Show Speed Violations

Highlight where the posted limit was exceeded (requires speed violations activated on the device).

Show Traffic

Overlay live traffic.

Mode

Default route mode — Optimized, Raw, or Default for Device.

Map style

Map style controls how every map in the app looks: Moto Watchdog — custom light and dark styles that match the app — or Google Maps default — standard Google colors in light mode, a Google-like dark map at night.

And the base layer: Standard (road map with Moto or Google styling) or Satellite (satellite imagery from Google Maps). You can also flip to satellite straight from the live map with the satellite toggle.

Settings reference

Settings is reachable from the menu and from the bottom of the More screen.

Profile

Your name and photo. Tap to edit. Your email is used for sign-in and can't be changed here — contact support to update it.

Preferences

Notification Settings

Every push alert type, grouped, plus per-vehicle overrides.

Email Settings

Which events are emailed, and opt-out-all.

Map settings

Polylines, traffic, data points, route mode.

Trip Settings

Wait time before a trip is considered finished.

Language

App interface language.

Time Zone

Your account timezone (searchable list).

App tour

Replay the product walkthrough.

Units & display

• Distance — Miles or Km. Everything follows this one choice: trips, reports, speed alerts, maintenance intervals, fuel economy.
• Appearance — Dark, Light, or Auto (match system).
• Keep screen awake — prevents dimming and auto-lock, useful while you're watching a live trip.

Account, storage and layout

Privacy & security covers passkeys; Help has guides and FAQ; Support is chat with the team. Storage shows the app's current disk usage and lets you clear the cache — that frees space and forces fresh data on the next load; nothing on your account is deleted. At the bottom: Log Out (with confirmation), and the app version and build number.

Shop

More → Shop is the in-app store for Moto Watchdog hardware and accessories, so you're not guessing SKUs on a website.

• Browse — Featured, Today's Picks, Recommended for you, and All Products.
• Search products, with recent searches saved for quick re-runs.
• Product detail — key features, variants, availability (In stock with quantity remaining, Out of stock, or Pre-order), SKU, and the lifetime-4G / subscription-free note.
• Add to Cart or Buy Now.
• Cart — quantities, subtotal, shipping (calculated at checkout) and total, then Proceed to Checkout.
• Past Orders — everything you've ordered through the app.
• Track Order — shipments on their way, with carrier and tracking. Orders appear here once the shipment is moving; your confirmation email also carries the tracking link.
• Shop Tools — Help & FAQ and Contact Us.

Devices bought here still need the usual registration code + PIN activation under Add device.

What's New

More → What's New is the short list of what changed in the app — useful after an update, or when a teammate asks "did we always have that?" Each card summarizes a release or a piece of product news. Open one for the detail. Items mark themselves read as you view them, and a badge appears on the tile when there are unread notes.

Help and support

• Need Help? — the in-app App Guide, with 22 interactive walkthroughs.
• Help & FAQ / Help Center — written guides and answers, including hardware help like finding your vehicle's OBD port.
• Support — live chat with the Moto Watchdog team, from Settings → Support.
• Setup Guide — hardware-specific setup instructions, surfaced during activation and available afterwards per device.

The More screen also shows a live indicator confirming your phone is connected to Moto Watchdog servers in real time — a quick way to rule out your own connection when something looks stale.

iPad

Moto Watchdog has a purpose-built iPad layout, not a stretched phone app.

• A persistent sidebar for navigation, which you can collapse for more map.
• Split views — a list on the left, detail on the right. Pick a device, trip, alert, zone, diagnostic code, user, permission group or product from the list and its full detail opens alongside.
• Show / hide the device list independently of the sidebar.
• Keyboard support on the sign-in screens — Return to sign in, Tab between fields.

Every feature in this guide is available on iPad, including the full authentication flow with Face ID and Touch ID.

Languages and units

Interface language

Settings → Language offers System default (follows your device's language), English, French, Spanish and Italian. The app switches straight away — no restart. Full translations also ship for German, Arabic and Canadian French, which are used automatically when your device is set to one of those languages and Language is left on System default.

Units

Settings → Units & display → Distance switches the whole app between Miles (with MPH, gallons) and Kilometers (with km/h, liters). Trips, reports, speed thresholds, maintenance intervals and fuel economy all follow it. Fuel volume units are set per fill-up (Gallons or Liters), so you can log a liter fill-up on a miles account if you need to.

Time zone

Settings → Time Zone sets your account timezone from a searchable list. Driver schedules and business hours are evaluated in this timezone.

Status and event glossary

Device status

Parked

Stationary, engine off.

Moving

A trip is in progress.

Idle

Engine running, not moving.

Stopped

Stationary during a trip.

Towed

Moving while powered off or under the device's "On" voltage threshold.

Online / Connected

The tracker has a live connection to the servers.

Disconnected

No live connection — last known data is shown.

If a device reports Towed and it isn't actually being towed, contact support to adjust its voltage threshold.

Battery

Reported as High, Medium or Low with a percentage. Battery health reads Healthy, Partially Discharged or Fully Discharged. Remember that battery level only updates when the tracker sends a location update.

Trip events

Other statuses

Report

Waiting → Processing → Completed, or Error Occurred.

Command

Queued → Sent → Confirmed, or Failed.

Share link

Active (with an expiry date, or "Does not expire") · Expired · Revoked.

Troubleshooting

My new tracker isn't showing a location.

It needs calibrating first — 5–10 miles of driving for OBD units, a 5–10 minute walk for battery units, 5–10 minutes of driving for hardwire. Park somewhere with open sky. The setup screen reloads by itself when data arrives.

The battery percentage looks wrong or hasn't changed.

The tracker only reports battery level alongside a location update, so it lags. On battery units, the red light going out means fully charged — the app may not catch up until the next location report.

I'm not getting any notifications.

Check three things in order: the alert type is switched on under Settings → Notification Settings; that vehicle isn't overriding your account settings (vehicle screen → Notifications); and Moto Watchdog has notification permission in your phone's own Settings. The Alerts screen shows a banner if permission was declined.

I'm getting far too many notifications.

Trim push down to the urgent handful and move the round-ups to email. For speeding, raise the threshold by 5 rather than turning it off. For geofences at places a vehicle sits all day, enable one alert direction instead of both.

A short errand shows up as three separate trips.

Increase the wait time under Settings → Trip Settings. A longer window merges brief stops into one trip.

No trips are being recorded on a hardwire unit.

If ACC Detection is on but the orange wire isn't connected to the ignition switch, no trips can be recorded. Either connect the wire or turn ACC Detection off so trips are detected from motion instead.

I changed Energy Mode but nothing happened.

Changes go to the device's command queue and apply the next time the tracker comes online. A sleeping tracker won't pick it up until it wakes on motion.

A command I sent says Queued and stays there.

Commands only reach a connected tracker. The Commands screen shows when the device was last connected. It'll go through once the tracker is back online.

My report download link stopped working.

Report links are valid for 30 minutes. Reload the Reports screen to generate a fresh one.

A vehicle is reporting Towed and it isn't.

Contact support — the device's voltage threshold needs adjusting.

I can't find a feature that's in this guide.

Your role or permission group may not grant access to it, in which case it's hidden rather than disabled. Ask the account owner to check your permissions. A few features are owner/administrator only.

Someone needs to see one vehicle but shouldn't have an account.

Use a device share link — no app or account needed, scoped to past and/or in-progress trips, with an expiry you choose and a revoke button you control.