Share Your Location (and See How Much Battery Power Your Friends Have) on Google Maps
When you are traveling in a large group, you always seem to receive or send the message “Where are you guys ?!” text, especially at this time of year when music festivals are in full swing.
Google Maps is a great way to do this, in part because it’s something that everyone probably already has on their phone, and it’s cross-platform, so people on iPhones and Android devices can track each other in the same place and just as easily. … Now Google has added another great feature: the ability to see how much battery your friend has on their phone.
The idea is that if you see Jenny’s phone about to die, you’ll know that her location is likely to be wrong (or at least won’t update) an hour later. It can also help you know Jenny isn’t ignoring your messages and give you a good idea of where she was before her phone got bitten by the dust.
If you’ve never shared your location with friends via Google Maps, the process is actually pretty simple. To do this, launch Google Maps and then click on the hamburger menu in the upper right corner of the page (these three dots are located one above the other). If you don’t see the menu on the right-hand side, you may need to click on the menu to start routes for Google Maps to load your current location.
From there, select “Share your location” from the drop-down menu. A popup will appear asking how long you want to share your location. Below you will see a Contacts button that you can click and choose who you want to share your location with (click the More button to access things like Messenger and WhatsApp). Pick the people you want and you’re done.
It’s very easy to set up, and now when you look at your friend’s location, you’ll also see their battery percentage. Take a look at the screenshot below of my boyfriend tracking my trip to the San Francisco mission while I was researching this article.
From personal experience, being able to just navigate your friends instead of relying on them to A) have your phone and B) be smart / sober / knowledgeable enough to give you appropriate directions to their location can be a lifesaver.