Understanding Distance in Tsukimi
Tsukimi can show you the approximate distance between you and your friends. Because locations are generalized by precision, distances always include an uncertainty range.
Where distance appears
- On the Friends page, below each friend's entry
- On the Dashboard, when sorting by distance
- On the Map, as a line between you and a selected friend
How distance is calculated
Distance is calculated using the generalized display locations, not exact coordinates. Because both your location and your friend's location have been rounded to their respective precision levels, there's always some margin of error.
The result looks like this:
~320 km ± 50 km away
The ~320 km is the estimated distance, and ± 50 km is the combined uncertainty from both users' precision levels.
When distance won't show
Distance is hidden automatically when the margin of error is too large to be meaningful. Specifically, if the combined uncertainty exceeds 50% of the calculated distance, no distance is displayed.
This means:
- Two friends at City precision across the country will see accurate distances
- Two friends at Country precision in the same country likely won't see a distance, because the uncertainty radius would be too large relative to the actual distance between them
- If either user's precision is set to Planet Earth, distance is never shown (there's no meaningful location to measure from)
Distance units
You can choose between kilometers and miles in Settings > Preferences > Units > Distance.
Sorting by distance
Both the Dashboard and the Friends list support sorting by distance. Friends without a calculable distance will appear at the end of the list.