Talenta

Opening the app and finding the attendance button

You open the Talenta mobile app and the home screen loads. The Live Attendance button sits right there, promising a one-tap clock-in. But the GPS icon spins. And spins. The app checks your location against the office radius your HR admin set up — somewhere between 50 and 1000 meters. If you are standing outside that circle, the button stays grayed out. This is the first thing every employee encounters. The app forces you to be physically present, or at least within the defined geofence, before you can record your shift.

Talenta is an Indonesian cloud-based HR platform built for companies that want to move away from fingerprint scanners and paper timesheets. The employee side of the app handles attendance, leave requests, overtime claims, reimbursement submissions, and payroll visibility. But the moment you tap that attendance button, you enter a system that cares more about your GPS coordinates than your intentions. The app collects location data, personal information, and six other data categories, all encrypted during transmission. No third-party sharing, according to the developer. But the phone knows where you are, and it will not let you forget that.

The company directory sits one tab away. You can pull up any colleague's contact details, check your own employment data, and request updates through an approval workflow. Push notifications arrive when your leave request moves from pending to approved. The interface is clean, the menus are organized, and the features are exactly what an Indonesian HR department would want. But the real story of Talenta is not in the feature list. It is in what happens when you try to use two of those features at the same time.

GPS attendance and the directory that watches you

Live Attendance uses GPS to validate your clock-in and clock-out. The system checks your location against the work address your company configured. If you are within range, the attendance records. If you are outside, you get the "out of range" error. The official help center suggests force-closing the app and reopening it, or setting your phone's GPS to High Accuracy mode. Some users report that even after doing that, the location still does not appear. The iOS version has a specific reset procedure for location settings. The Android version simply tells you to try again.

Now layer the Company Directory on top of that. The directory shows every employee's basic information and contact details. But it also shows your employment data, and that data feeds into the notification system. When you clock in, the system logs it. When you clock out, it logs that too. The directory does not just show who works where — it shows who is currently clocked in, who is on leave, and who is running late. The app turns your attendance data into a real-time visibility tool for managers. The same GPS that validates your location also feeds into the payroll module, calculating overtime and salary adjustments automatically.

This is where the original friction lives. The GPS validation is strict, but the notification system is aggressive. Users report receiving promotional offers for other Mekari products after using the app. The same system that tracks your attendance also pushes sales messages. The directory and the attendance log are not separate features — they are two sides of the same surveillance tool. The app makes it easier for HR to manage employees, but it also makes it harder for employees to manage their own privacy. The GPS does not stop tracking when you close the app. The iOS privacy label explicitly states that location may be used even when the app is not open, which can decrease battery life.

What the changelog actually changed

The Play Store changelog for version 2.118.0 lists three specific updates. First, Live Tracking now maps your workday into visits, trips, breaks, and idle time, with tracking alerts. Second, Live Attendance now checks GPS accuracy before you submit, with clearer clock-in and clock-out verification. Third, Performance Management now has a dedicated app for focused review and goal workflow. These are not generic "bug fixes" — they are functional changes that alter how the app behaves.

Earlier versions had simpler changelog entries. Version 2.114.0 said only "We have fixed some issues for better app performance." Version 2.115.0 and 2.117.0 repeated similar vague statements. But 2.118.0 is different. The developer actually described what changed: live tracking, GPS accuracy checks, and a separate performance management interface. The iOS version also received updates, with improved attendance metrics and a new Next Workdays feature that shows upcoming schedules at a glance.

The version history reveals a pattern. The app started as a basic HR tool, then added GPS attendance, then payroll integration, then live tracking. Each release added more surveillance features. The latest update turns the app into a full workforce monitoring system. The changelog does not mention the complaints about slow performance during peak hours. It does not address the navigation confusion that users reported. It simply adds more tracking. The developer is building a system that watches employees more closely, not one that makes their lives easier.

Offline attendance and the GPS that still needs internet

The app has an offline attendance feature. You can clock in without an internet connection, and the data stores locally on your phone. But the GPS function is disabled when you are offline, because location detection requires an internet connection. The data syncs automatically once you are back online. This means the app can still track your attendance even when you are in a dead zone, but it cannot verify your location until you reconnect.

There is a workaround for managers who want to bypass the GPS entirely. The web version of Live Attendance allows clock-in and clock-out without location validation. Employees can access this URL if their HR admin activates the feature. But the mobile app itself forces GPS validation. The contradiction is built into the system: the web version trusts you, the mobile version does not. This creates a two-tier experience where office workers get tracked, and managers get exceptions.