How to Send My Location on iPhone: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide
The ability to share your exact location from your iPhone can be highly convenient and even a lifesaver in some scenarios. If you’re meeting up with friends, letting family members know you got home safely, or sending your location to a tow truck when your car breaks down, it’s quite simple to share your location in real time. It’s one of our favorite iPhone settings, so let’s get down to the details and help you share your location today!
When to Use iPhone’s Location-Sharing Features
There are several situations in which Apple’s location tools can come in handy. First and foremost, it can be a big boost to your personal safety. You can use it to allow your friends and family to track your location if you’re traveling alone, and it can also alert your emergency contacts if you’re in trouble.
This feature can also make life more convenient. For example, if you’re meeting up with others in a large, highly populated area (like at a baseball game or a concert) or you’re in an unfamiliar place, you can quickly share your exact location to make it easier for everyone to get together. You can even use it to share pickup and drop-off locations with rideshare and delivery services, such as Lyft or GrubHub.
How to Share Your Location
There are several different ways to share your location on an iPhone. Which one you choose may depend on what you’re using the feature for. Let’s break down the various methods and figure out which one best suits your needs.
Messages App
With the Messages app, you can share your location one time or set up an ongoing data transfer. The process starts in the same general way:
- Open Messages on your iPhone.
- Tap on your conversation with the person you want to share locations with.
- Tap on their name or profile at the top of the window.
From here, you can tap “Send My Current Location” to share where you currently are. This option doesn’t track your movements — it simply sends your friends or family members a map link to your present location.
Or, if you want these people to be able to track you in general, location-sharing features can do this as well. Simply tap “Share My Location” after following the three steps above, and then choose whether you’d like to share your location for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely (until you turn it off).
Find My App
You can also use Apple’s device-tracking “Find My” app to share your location. While you can use it to find your own devices if you lose them, you can also use it to inform others of your location. Here’s how it works:
- Launch “Find My” and click on the People tab.
- Select the + icon in the top right corner of the screen.
- Click “Share My Location” and select which person you want to share it with. The phone number you choose must be in your contacts and have an Apple ID. In other words, you’ll need to choose another method to share your location with an Android user. (Don’t worry, there are more options coming up!)
The final step of this process is the same as the last step to share your location using Messages. Select how long you want to share this data (an hour, the rest of the day, or until you deactivate the feature), and you’re good to go!
Google or Apple Maps
Sharing your location within Google Maps or Apple Maps can come in handy, especially if you’re trying to tell someone how to get to you. With this method, you can include driving or walking directions, making it as easy as possible for your chosen contact to find you. In general, this is also the best way to share locations with Android users, as their phones aren’t compatible with Apple’s Messages or Find My apps.
Google Maps
In Google Maps, select your icon in the top right corner. Tap “Location Sharing” followed by “Share Location.” Similar to the Apple options, you can indicate how long you want the sharing to last and choose who to share it with. Once you tap “Share,” it’s all set up and ready to roll.
One aspect we really appreciate about the Google Maps option is that Google sends periodic reminders about location services, informing you who you’re sharing with and how long they’ll have access to your location. This is a welcome feature because sometimes we can be a bit forgetful and fail to stop sharing our locations — Google will always let you know where you stand in this regard.
Apple Maps
In Apple Maps, click on the blue dot indicating your current location. Then, tap “Share My Location.” From here, you can choose whether you want to share the info via Messages, Mail, AirDrop, and more.
Emergency SOS
Finally, if you’re in an emergency, press and hold the side button and volume button to bring up the Emergency SOS screen. Your iPhone will then send your current location to your emergency contacts.
