[opensourcedex]

paralino is a free, open source miscellaneous project written in Kotlin and released under AGPL-3.0. It has 62 GitHub stars, 1 forks and 3 open issues, and was last pushed 3 days ago. On this registry it ranks #25 of 25 tracked projects in Miscellaneous, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 2 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

What is paralino?

Paralino is an end-to-end encrypted, privacy-focused, real-time location sharing and family safety app for Android and iOS, built for families, friend groups, and privacy-conscious individuals who want to track devices without exposing plaintext location data.

What it is

Paralino is an open-source mobile application written in Kotlin with Compose Multiplatform and Kotlin Multiplatform, released under the AGPL-3.0 licence and distributed through the Apple App Store, Google Play, and a de-Googled Android APK. It pairs continuous location sharing across private groups with a Personal space that works with no sharing at all, and it layers granular sharing controls, privacy zones, geofence alerts, and location history on top of that core.

The problem it solves is the trade in personal location data that accompanies most consumer family-tracking services, where a phone's position is treated as an analytics asset and sharing usually means accepting ads, third-party tracking, and server-side plaintext. Paralino replaces that arrangement with end-to-end encryption, so only the user's own devices and the devices of people they explicitly share with can decrypt anything, while the EU-hosted backend holds data it cannot read. It lives in the Kotlin Multiplatform ecosystem, and on Android it also serves de-Googled users through a build that pairs MapLibre maps with UnifiedPush or direct WebSocket connections and the native AOSP LocationManager.

Key capabilities

  • Real-time location with live movement tracking plus device status on the map: speed, elevation, battery level, and signal strength.
  • Location history for the user's own trips or shared outward, with a dedicated Personal space section for devices only the owner sees.
  • Private groups with granular control over what, when, and with whom data is shared, including approximate-location-only sharing or a fixed window such as two hours.
  • Privacy zones that obscure actual position and automatically switch a device to approximate sharing on entry.
  • Geofence place alerts for entries and exits at places such as home, work, or school, plus low battery alerts and rich push notifications for joins and sharing starts.
  • End-to-end encryption covering location and related data, so nothing leaves the device in plaintext.
  • A de-Googled Android APK with built-in updates, downloadable from the Download page or GitHub Releases and verifiable with apksigner verify -v --print-certs --min-sdk-version 29 ParalinoAndroidDirect.apk.

Who uses it and how

  • Families running private groups to follow children to and from school, with place alerts on school and home geofences replacing manual check-in messages.
  • Friend groups or couples who want selective sharing — a two-hour window, approximate coordinates, or no battery data — instead of an all-or-nothing broadcast.
  • Solo users who invite nobody and use Personal space to find their own devices and review their own location history.
  • Privacy-focused Android users on de-Googled ROMs who need a build without Google services and depend on MapLibre, UnifiedPush, and AOSP LocationManager.
  • Multi-device accounts connecting phones and tablets so location is shared from whichever device is at hand.

Getting started

Install from the Apple App Store (id6736908747) or Google Play (app.paralino.android), or download the de-Googled APK from the Download page or GitHub Releases and verify its signature with the apksigner command above.

How it compares

No comparable project and no list of paid products it replaces is provided in the facts for this entry, so on the available evidence Paralino stands alone in this registry. Its distinguishing traits are the AGPL-3.0 licence, an EU-hosted backend, native apps on both Android and iOS, a maintainer-published de-Googled Android edition, and end-to-end encryption as the default rather than an option.

When to use it — and when not to

Paralino is a hosted service: the documentation covers client apps and a backend but describes no self-hosting procedure, server stack, or database an operator would run, so teams needing control of the server side should not assume they can deploy it themselves. The project is small — 61 stars, 1 fork, 3 open issues — so anyone relying on it for safety-critical tracking must weigh a thin contributor base, and the de-Googled build assumes users are comfortable sideloading and verifying an APK. Users who want plaintext location exposed through an API for third-party integration will find the encryption model works against them.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Paralino - More than Location Sharing

Website | Download | Docs | Roadmap | Changelog

Paralino is an end-to-end encrypted, privacy-focused, real-time location sharing and family safety app for Android and iOS.

Don't want to share with others? Use it for yourself in your personal space to track your own devices and record your own location history.

What Paralino offers

Groups & devices

  • Real-time location: continuous location updates with live device movement tracking.
  • Location history: track your own location history or share it with others. Use it to review your trips and recall specific moments in time.
  • Private groups: create private groups for your family and friends to granularly control sharing in different social contexts.
  • Personal space: a dedicated section in the app only for you and your devices. Use it to find your own devices, track your trips, review your own location history and more.
  • Device status monitoring: check speed, elevation, battery level, signal strength, etc. in real-time directly on the map.
  • Multiple devices: connect multiple devices like phones and tablets to the same account and share your location seamlessly from all of them.

Control & alerts

  • Full sharing control: you choose what, when, and with whom to share. Don't share battery level, skip including your speed, share only for 2 hours, only share approximate location, and many more granular controls.
  • Privacy zones: create special areas on the map which will obscure your actual location and automatically switch to approximate sharing when you enter them.
  • Place alerts: create geofences and get alerts when someone from your group enters or leaves a specific place like home, work, school, etc.
  • Low battery alerts: get alerts when someone's device is running low on battery.
  • Proper battery optimization: you control how hard you want Paralino to work in the background. Pick your performance profile and the app will do the rest.
  • Rich push notifications: get alerts when someone joins a group, starts sharing their location, has low battery, enters a predefined place, etc.

Privacy & trust

  • End-to-end encryption: your location and all related data are encrypted end-to-end, never leave your device in plain text, and only you and your family's devices can decrypt it.
  • Fully de-googled Android: the dedicated APK edition contains no Google services, uses MapLibre for maps, UnifiedPush or direct WebSocket connections for push notifications, and native AOSP LocationManager for location tracking. Built-in app updates without the need for manual downloads when new versions are released.
  • EU-based 🇪🇺: built and hosted in the European Union.
  • No ads, no tracking, no data selling: your data stays yours.

E2EE

To check out how Paralino implements end-to-end encryption, please visit the Architecture page.

Download

Android de-googled APK

You can download the de-googled APK from the Download page, or directly from the GitHub Releases.

Use this command to verify the signature of the APK:

apksigner verify -v --print-certs --min-sdk-version 29 ParalinoAndroidDirect.apk

SHA-256 signing certificate hash:

7C:36:87:CA:81:BC:A2:0C:32:09:5E:CE:AD:18:29:09:DC:50:87:03:6A:37:F0:77:2B:2D:9E:5D:85:91:41:DC

Modules & Architecture

The project is structured as a modular Kotlin Multiplatform repository to maximize code reuse across Android and iOS. Besides business logic, the vast majority of the UI is also shared between the two platforms by Compose Multiplatform.

  • androidApp: Android-specific module containing platform-specific implementations and build definitions.
  • iosApp: Xcode project containing a native iOS application based on Swift/SwiftUI and wrappers for Compose components.
  • shared: The central library linking the common KMP core directly into both the Android app and the iOS framework.
  • core-*: Shared core libraries containing general utilities, business logic, models, resources, UI components, etc.

Building & Running

Before building Paralino locally, ensure you have the following IDEs installed on your system:

  • Android Studio (Quail 2026.1.1 or newer)
  • Xcode (26.5 or newer, required for iOS and running on macOS 26.5 or newer)

Clone the Repository Recursively

Paralino utilizes several Git submodules, so clone the project recursively:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/paralino/paralino.git

Running the Android Application

To build and install the application onto an active Android emulator or physical device, either tap on the Run button in Android Studio or run the following command in the terminal:

./gradlew :androidApp:installDirectReleaseLocal

The directReleaseLocal build type is already configured to use your local keystore and requires zero project setup or configuration in order to have an optimized, locally built, fully functional APK installed on your device. Besides using your local keystore, there is no difference between directReleaseLocal and the officially distributed de-googled APK.

iOS Application

You can also run the iOS application directly through Xcode, but certain features like push notifications and background location tracking will not work since those are only available on approved production builds.

Contributing

Bug reports, feature ideas, and general feedback are very welcome. You can help by opening issues, sharing thoughts on GitHub Discussions, or using our feedback portal.

See CONTRIBUTING for details on how to report bugs, suggest enhancements, and get in touch.

Paralino Android and iOS apps are open-source for the purpose of providing trust and transparency into the inner workings of the project. Considering that and due to a tightly planned roadmap, external code contributions via pull requests are not enabled at this stage.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPL-3.0).

Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC. Apple, the Apple logo, and other Apple trademarks are trademarks of Apple Inc.

Frequently asked questions

Is paralino free to use?

paralino is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does paralino do?

Paralino - Private and E2EE location sharing with groups, travel tracking, smart alerts, location history and more.

What is paralino written in?

paralino is primarily written in Kotlin. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/paralino/paralino, and it has 62 GitHub stars.