A log that happens anyway vs a record you choose
Timeline’s strength is that it is not a product you tend. Where enabled, it records your phone’s locations in the background, stores them on the device, and lets you search them later. As a utility — recalling an evening, settling an argument, finding that restaurant — it is excellent, free, and already in your pocket.
The trade-offs are on the record side. Places are inferred rather than curated, so the cathedral and the parking lot are the same kind of entry. Recent versions default to automatically deleting history after a period of months, so the log ages out. And because it is opt-in, any stretch of travel with it off simply does not exist.
Unlocked runs the other way: nothing is automatic, and that is the point. An entry exists because you stood at a Landmark and the presence check passed — timestamp, coordinates, reported accuracy, distance, and radius validated at that moment. The record is smaller and cost effort, which is exactly why it holds meaning.
Where Timeline is the better tool
If your need is recall — “where was I?” — do not install anything. Timeline is free, automatic, on-device, and better at that job than any travel product in this category, including ours. This page exists for the job it does not do: a deliberate, permanent record of the places that mattered.
Where Unlocked is the better tool
Timeline cannot tell you which landmarks you reached, award anything for them, or turn an arrival into a keepsake. If you want travel to accumulate — dated unlocks, city-by-city progress, badges, and Memories you can generate from verified visits — that layer simply does not exist in a location log.