Sharing your location is a handy feature to have. Whether you’re trying to let someone track you in real time as you make your way to a meet-up point, or simply sharing location on iPhone to allow your loved ones to keep a track of your whereabouts, you can do it very easily on your iPhone. You can even just share your current location, instead of your live real-time location with people. So, here are 11 ways to share location on iPhone.
Share Location Using Find My
With Find My, it’s dead simple to share your location with friends and family members.
Share Location Using Find MyShare Your Current Location Using Apple Messages App on iPhoneShare Real-Time Location Using Apple Messages App on iPhoneShare Your Location with a Contact on iPhoneShare Your Location on iPhone Using Apple MapsShare Your Current Location on iPhone Using Google MapsShare Your Real-Time Location on iPhone Using Google MapsShare Your Current/Real-Time Location on iPhone Using WhatsAppShare Your Current/Real-Time Location on iPhone Using TelegramShare Your Location on iPhone Using SignalShare Your Location on iPhone Using MessengerHow Location Sharing Works on iPhone?
Add a contact either from the list of people that pops down, or simply search for a contact and add them. Then, tap on ‘Send’. You can choose to share your location for one hour, until the end of day, or indefinitely (which means you will permanently share your location until you manually stop sharing it).
That’s it, you have now started sharing your location with the selected contact using Find My.
Stop Sharing Your Location with People on Find My
If, for some reason, you want to stop sharing your location with people in Find My, simply follow the steps below.
- Open ‘Find My’, and in the ‘People’ tab, select the person with whom you want to stop sharing location. Scroll down and tap on ‘Stop Sharing My Location’. In the pop-up, tap on ‘Stop Sharing Location’ to confirm.
That’s it, the contact will no longer be able to see your location. On the other hand, if you’re sharing your location with multiple people and you want to stop sharing it with all of them in one go, you can do that as well.
Share Your Current Location Using Apple Messages App on iPhone
If you use iMessage frequently, you might want to share location in iMessages instead. Here’s how to do that.
- Now, tap Send My Current Location and you are good to go!
Share Real-Time Location Using Apple Messages App on iPhone
Open the Messages app and go to a chat thread and hit the name of the person at the top.
Now, tap Share My Location and then choose to share your location for one hour, share until the end of the day or share it indefinitely.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as iMessage has got many more handy tricks up its sleeve. To explore more such cool tricks, check out our roundup of the best iMessage tips.
iOS also lets you share your location with a contact on your iPhone.
Share Your Location on iPhone Using Apple Maps
If you want to share your current location on iOS, Apple Maps can get the job done for you.
- Launch Apple Maps on your iOS device. After that, tap the blue dot icon that indicates your location and hit Share in the popup menu. Now, choose the desired app in the share sheet then select the person you want to share your location with.
Share Your Current Location on iPhone Using Google Maps
When it comes to location sharing across platforms including iOS, Google Maps is like a go-to destination. From what I can tell, it offers a pretty intuitive way of sharing location.
Even though Apple Maps has shown a lot of improvements, Google Maps still has an edge. If you want to find out what separates the two leading navigation apps, check out our in-depth comparison.
Google Maps also provides neat real-time location sharing.
- After that, choose how long you want to share your location and then tap the name of the person you want to share your location with. Then, hit Share. To stop sharing the location, tap the name of the person with whom you are currently sharing your location and tap Stop.
Share Your Current/Real-Time Location on iPhone Using WhatsApp
For private location sharing, WhatsApp is as good as any app.
Share Your Current/Real-Time Location on iPhone Using Telegram
Telegram also provides a quick way to share the current or real-time locations.
- Open Telegram on your iPhone and navigate to the specific chat. Then, tap the menu button to the left of the text field and choose Location in the popup menu. Now, you can either send your current location or choose to share your live location as per your needs.
Share Your Location on iPhone Using Signal
If you’re a Signal user, here’s how to share your location with your contacts on Signal.
Share Your Location on iPhone Using Messenger
Facebook Messenger also lets you share live location on iPhone pretty easily.
How Location Sharing Works on iPhone?
For seamless location sharing, Apple lets you share location with family and friends. So, if you have set up Family Sharing on your iOS device, you can take advantage of the Find My app (which combines Find My iPhone and Find My Friends into a single app in the latest iterations of iOS) to share your location with ease.
Before getting started, make sure you have enabled location services on your device. To do so, head into the Settings app -> Privacy -> Location Services and then turn on the toggle. When you initiate location sharing through any app, you are prompted to allow the app to access your location. Then, you can choose to allow the app to have access to your location once or access it while you are using the app.