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Whether you’re going to meet a friend, visit your family or headed back home, you may experience travel delays. Yes, as well as you may have planned getting from Point A to Point B you may encounter some unexpected events.
Flights may run late, roads may be snarled with traffic, trains may be delayed or your bicycle may get a flat tire. Whatever the situation, you may want to let people know when to expect you. Or to let them know you arrived home safely.
Instead of giving people constant updates about your arrival time, you can share your location with others. Let them follow your travel progress as you make your way to your destination.
You can use three apps to share your location with others in real-time. They can see where you are on a map and track your location as you move.
You can share your location permanently with others, or you can use these apps to share your location for a limited amount of time.
Three different apps let you share your location with others, and you may already have these apps on your phone.
Google Maps
Last week Google Maps released an update to allow your location to be shared using an iPhone. Previously locations could only be shared by those using Android phones.
Sharing your location using Google Maps is especially handy when sharing is done with people who have Android phones or between iPhone and Android users.
To share your location with someone using Google Maps, open the Google Maps app (be sure to update your app if you’re using an iPhone) and sign in with your Google account.
Tap the menu icon (three stacked lines) in the upper left corner of the screen, then tap Location sharing.
You’ll see a choice of how long you want to share your location. For one hour, or you can adjust the time.
You can also share your location indefinitely, until you turn it off.
To share your location with others using Google Maps, you will need to have Location History turned on in your Google account and allow the Google Maps app to have access to your location always.
Learn more at => How to REALLY Turn Off Google Location History
Google Maps will create a link which you can share with others via text message or email. Your friend(s) will get a notice with a link they can tap to see your location on Google Maps.
The time period you set to share your location will run from the time the link is created.
iPhone Find My Friends
If you and your friend(s) have an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer or iCloud account, you can use Find My Friends to share your location with them. Find My Friends can’t be used with Android phones.
You can use Find My Friends to share your location with others for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely.
A full explanation of how to use Find My Friends, including a link to the Find My Friends app is included in The Wonder of Tech article: Find My Friends: A Cool, Creepy and Life-Saving App.
Facebook Messenger
You can share your location with your Facebook friends using Facebook Messenger. This is best used for your friends on Facebook who use Facebook Messenger. If you’re not Facebook friends with the person with whom you want to share your location using Facebook Messenger, you can either:
- become Facebook friends with them or
- choose a different method of sharing your location
Note that you must allow Messenger to track your location always to share your location with others using the app.
To use Facebook Messenger to share your location with others, open the Facebook Messenger app on your phone. Type the name(s) of the friend(s) you want to share your location with.
Tap the + button.
Tap Location.
You’ll see a map of your current location. Tap Share Live Location for 60 minutes at the bottom of the map. Your friend will see a message in Messenger with a map showing your current location.
Unfortunately, you can’t change the time period when you’ll be sharing your location with Facebook Messenger. Sharing is for 60 minutes, not a minute shorter or longer.
You can cancel sharing by tapping Stop Sharing in the message in Messenger.
What Else You Should Know
Share Your Location Using Apps vs. Computer
You can share your location using these three apps, but you can’t use location sharing from your computer. Don’t think about using Google Maps, Find My Friends or Facebook Messenger to share your location from your computer, unless you want to be sorely disappointed.
If you click Location sharing in Google Maps on your computer, you’ll see this notice:
But you can follow someone’s location using your computer. So you can send your location to others by using these three apps, then they can use their computer to see where you are on a map.
That’s good news for your friends who don’t have a smart phone and want to see your location.
App Location Settings
By using these tech tools you are allowing apps to follow your location always. If you don’t need to share your location with your friends always, then you may not need these apps to follow your location always.
Be sure to adjust location settings for apps so that they meet your needs. Having an app always following your location may be an invasion of privacy and a drain on your phone’s battery.
Check out => How to Know Which Apps Are Tracking Your Location
After you’re done sharing your location, adjust the app’s location settings. You can set them back to Always the next time you want to share your location with friends.
Your Thoughts
Have you ever shared your location with your friends? Which of these three apps have you use? Do you find sharing your location with others easier than texting them to keep them updated about your arrival time?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
Great post, This is a wonderful piece of information. I completely agree with you that live location sharing can be very helpful in order to follow the routes of your near and dear ones. You are assured about their well being and it gives you peace of mind.
Thanks for sharing this post, have a great day. 🙂
Hi Tarique, Excellent point. Yes, we may be reassured when we know where our loved ones are without having to pester them. If they are delayed in their arrival we can see where they are and perhaps figure out the reason for their delay.
I hope you enjoy using these apps, Tarique.
Hi
Carolyn,
Informative post as usual. There are many benefits of sharing your location with family and friends. By sharing location you can provide exact location information and this may be helpful for people in reaching your destination effortlessly.
Yes, it is easy to share our location with others rather than texting them to keep them updated about our arrival time.
Thanks for sharing this post with us.
Have a great day.
Praveen
Hi Praveen, Yes, it can be annoying both for the person traveling and for the person awaiting their arrival. By using these location sharing services, you can avoid these annoyances and perhaps distracting someone by texting them while they’re driving.
Thanks for adding to the conversation, Praveen.
The identification of Location avoids lots of hassles and saving of time of the persons willing to meet. The article information are quite useful.
Hi Ashok, Good point, by using location sharing, you may be able to avoid a lot of hassles. You can see whether your friend is running late to meet you or check to make sure someone got home safely. It’s great to have so many options to share our location with others.