How to Share Your Location on IPhone
There are many reasons why you might want to tell a small select group of people where your smartphone is: for example, to let them know you’re safe, or to let them know how long it will be before you arrive, or to make sure you’re really you end up in the same restaurant.
And if you use an iPhone for work, you also have many options for how to do this sharing – you can choose the one you like best, or the one that best suits the scenario (if you share your location with people on Android, and also possibly on iOS).
All of the apps and tools described here are responsible for managing the sharing of your location: you retain full control over who else can know where you are and when, and you can stop sharing information at any time. For those closest to you, such as partners and children, you can share your location 24/7.
Built-in option: Find my
If you use an iPhone and only communicate with people who use an iPhone, then Find My makes a lot of sense: it’s built right into iOS and other Apple software platforms, so you don’t need to install another app, and it all works pretty seamlessly across devices and platforms (it is also available online).
Before you can start sharing your location from your iPhone, you’ll need to enable the feature at the iOS level (if it’s not already enabled) under Privacy & Security > Location Services in Settings. After that, open the Find My app on your iPhone and in the People tab, tap Start Sharing Location to find your contacts. If you already have contacts listed, click the + (plus) button and then “Share your location” to add more.
Once you select a contact, you can decide how long they want to share their location: one hour, the rest of the day, or indefinitely (until you turn the feature off). They will then have the option to share their location with you for the same period of time, although two-way sharing on their part is not required.
Everyone who shares their location with you will appear on the map. Tap any name in the People tab and you can see the current sharing status and turn off sharing if necessary. You can also receive location alerts from this tab: Click Add under Notifications, then Notify Me to set this up – you can receive notifications when someone arrives at a specific location, leaves a specific location, or not is in a certain place (useful). for example, for monitoring children).
Best Third Party Options
If you have family and friends on Android or aren’t impressed by Find My’s offering, you have plenty of other ways to share location. Google Maps ( Android , iOS ) is a good choice because of the many different features it offers and because most people likely already have it installed. In Google Maps on iPhone, tap your account profile picture (top right), then select Share Location .
Tap Share Location to start sharing, or if you’ve already set this up for one or more contacts, tap New Sharing to add someone else: you can share your location temporarily (from an hour to a day) or until you turn it off. The sharing is done manually, and your chosen contacts have the option to share their location in return. You can manage sharing with anyone by clicking on their name on the location sharing page.
As far as messaging apps go, WhatsApp ( Android , iOS ) probably has the most comprehensive set of location sharing features that work inside individual chats: this can be very useful when you’re in a group chat and everyone is trying to figure out e.g. where to meet, but you can of course share your location in a private chat.
In any chat, click the + (plus) button in the lower left corner next to the text input field, then select Location . You can share a specific fixed point on the map or continuously share your current location for 15 minutes, an hour, or eight hours. To stop sharing at any time, simply tap the widget in the conversation.
Other third party options
If you need even more options for this, they are there. Location sharing is built into e.g. Facebook Messenger ( Android , iOS ) and works similarly to WhatsApp: tap the + (plus) button to the left of the text field, then open the location tab and you can share a specific fixed point on the map or continuously share your location to for the next 60 minutes.
Snapchat ( Android , iOS ) also has a maps feature, which can be useful if it’s the app your kids spend the most time on. You can go to the map by tapping the map pin icon in the bottom left corner of the camera screen and configure the feature from there. Contacts who have shared their location with you will appear on the map, and if you tap the gear icon (top right), you can create a list of people who can see where you are.
You can also find dedicated location sharing apps that are independent of Apple and Google. The Life360 app ( Android , iOS ) is designed for families and family safety, but it works for friends too: you can share location, set notifications for arrivals and departures, and even alert contacts when you might be in trouble.
Then you have Glympse ( Android , iOS ), which also offers a full suite of location sharing features. You get full control over how long your location is shared and with whom, and there are several useful travel features, including the ability to report your estimated arrival time and automatically stop sharing when you get somewhere.