How to share data between users in real time on Android?

I am the author of a yet another one navigation application. My users ask me if I can implement location sharing among dynamically defined set of users. It means that it should be not like friends in Google Latitude but like some crew performing some short term task in open area. That's why I do not want to use those c开发者_JS百科ommunity-like location sharing services (may be I'm wrong?) nor I want to support such service by myself.

I'm thinking of some more general and convenient way of communication like SMS or e-mail. But I'm not sure that I can use them transparently in Android.

So I will highly appreciate any hints, clues and starting points.

P.S. By 'real time' I surely mean pseudo-real like 5-30 times per minute.

Sms or email is really more convenient? Seriously?

To do this, create a server, have the phones update their locations to the server and request locations of other users from the server and display them on a map. Build a custom solution for setting phones to groups and send only the appropriate information to the appropriate group.

I have to agree with Falmarri. Although it both possible and relative easy to achieve sending a sms or email 5 to 30 times per minute has many downfalls. Cost for one for example. Have you looked at the C2DM Framework http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/index.html.