There are plenty of reasons why you might want to let a small, select group of people know where your smartphone is: To let them know you’re safe, for example, or so they know how long it’ll be before you arrive, or to make sure you’re actually all going to end up at the same restaurant.
And if you’re using an iPhone for the job, you’ve got plenty of options for how to do this sharing as well—you can choose the one you like best, or the one that best fits the scenario (if you’re sharing your location with people on Android as well as iOS, perhaps).
All of the apps and tools covered here are responsible in the way they manage how your location is shared: You keep full control over who else can where you are and when, and you can stop the sharing whenever you need to. For the people you’re closest to, like partners and kids, you can keep location sharing on 24/7.
The built-in option: Find My
If you use an iPhone and you only ever interact with people who use iPhones, then Find My makes a lot of sense: It’s built right into iOS and Apple’s other software platforms, so you don’t need to get another app installed, and it all works pretty seamlessly between devices and across platforms (it’s available on the web, too).
Before you can start sharing your location from your iPhone, you need to enable the functionality at the iOS level (if it’s not already enabled) via Privacy & Security > Location Services in Settings. With that done, open the Find My app on your iPhone, and under the People tab you can tap Start Sharing Location to look for contacts. If contacts are already listed, tap the + (plus) button then Share My Location to add more.
Sharing can be limited in the Find My app.
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When you’ve picked a contact, you can decide how long to share your location with them for: One hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely (until you disable it). They then have the option to share their location with you for the same amount of time, though two-way sharing from their end is optional.
Anyone who is sharing their location with you will show up on the map. Tap any name on the People tab, and you can see the current sharing status, and turn off sharing if you need to. You can also get location alerts from this tab: Tap Add under Notifications, then Notify Me to set this up—you can get notified when someone arrives at a certain place, leaves a certain place, or isn’t at a certain place (useful for keeping tabs on the kids, for example).
The best third-party options
If you have family and friends on Android, or you’re not that impressed with the Find My offering, you’ve got plenty of other routes you can take when it comes to location sharing. Google Maps (Android, iOS) is a good pick, because of the many different features it offers, and because most people have most likely got it installed already. Inside Google Maps on the iPhone, tap your account profile picture (top right), then choose Location sharing.
Tap Share location to start sharing, or if you’ve already set this up with one or more contacts, tap New share to add someone else: You can share where you are temporarily (from an hour to a day), or until you disable the sharing manually, and the contacts you pick have the option to share their location in return. You can manage sharing with anyone by tapping on their name on the location sharing page.
Google Maps will direct you right to someone’s location.
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As far as messaging apps go, WhatsApp (Android, iOS) probably has the most comprehensive set of location-sharing features, which work inside individual chats: It can be really useful when you’re in a group chat and everyone is trying to figure out where to meet, for example, but you can of course share your whereabouts in a one-to-one chat too.
In any of your chats, tap the + (plus) button down in the lower left corner, next to the text input box, then choose Location. You can share a specific fixed point on the map, or share your current location continuously for 15 minutes, an hour, or eight hours. To stop sharing at any time, just tap on the widget in the conversation.
Other third-party options
If you need even more options for this, they’re out there. Location sharing is built into Facebook Messenger (Android, iOS) for example, and it works in a similar way to WhatsApp: Tap the + (plus) button to the left of the text box, then open the location tab, and you can share a specific fixed point on the map, or share your location continuously for the next 60 minutes.
There’s also a maps feature in Snapchat (Android, iOS)—which might be useful if it’s the app your kids spend most time on. You can get to the map by tapping the map pin icon in the lower left corner of the camera screen, and configure the feature from there. Contacts who are sharing their location with you will show up on the map, and if you tap the gear icon (top right) you can set the list of people who are able to see where you are.
Snapchat offers controls over who can see where you are.
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You can find dedicated location sharing apps that are independent of Apple and Google too. The Life360 app (Android, iOS) is aimed at families and family safety, but it works for friends too: You can share locations, set up notifications about arrivals and departures, and even alert contacts when you might be in trouble.
Then you’ve got Glympse (Android, iOS), which also has a comprehensive suite of location sharing features to offer. You get full control over how long your location is shared for, and who with, and there are some neat features for journeys—including the ability to share ETAs, and to automatically stop sharing when you reach somewhere.
