Ways to Share Location with Family and Friends on an iPhone or Android

Whether you are worried about your kid’s whereabouts or visiting a friend’s house for the first time, a little navigational help can do you a great favor. Or you may want to share a specific spot and share your position with someone you know or love once upon a time.

Well, we collect several easy ways to share locations by using smartphones. Let’s check it out together!

Why We Use Location-sharing with Family and Friends

With the location sharing feature, you can easily find out the target person’s location in real-time without their permission whenever and wherever you wish. Moreover, knowing young children’s positions can get parents alert based on their movements as well as gain peace of mind. Still, tracking back lost devices is no longer difficult with the help of the location-sharing setting on our phones. That is why we introduce location-sharing apps here. In a word, the advantages of using location-sharing weigh more than the disadvantages.

• You can see where people you know or love are without bothering to ask;
• Knowing someone’s last known location is easy;
• For safety and peace of mind;
• You can get Location-based alerts based on their movements;
• Helping find lost devices;
• Location sharing can be revoked at any time.

Here come the questions, how do we share the location with family and friends? Don’t worry, we got the best answer for you in the next section!

Using Google Maps

As we all know, Google Maps is one of the most popular mapping apps in the world nowadays. It’s easy to share your location with family and friends with Google Maps and it works on both iOS and Android devices.

For this simple method to work, you need to:

1. Open the Google Maps app on your iPhone or Android phone;
2. Tap on your profile pic and sign in to your Google account;
3. Click on Location Sharing and Share Location;
4. Select the options on how long you want to share your location;
5. Choose  the person you wish to share your location with;

Once you have done so, you can have access to view the person with whom you are sharing your location and you will see their profile pic on the map if they agree to share their location with you.

Using Facebook Messenger

If you are chatting with a guy and want to send your location information in the Facebook Messenger app, then you can share your location directly without any hassle. This way also works on Android and iPhone.

To do this, you can follow:

1. Open the Facebook Messenger app and select the conversation with the person you want to share your location;
2. Tap on the Location icon;
3. You are required to grant the Messenger app location privileges;
4. Click on the Share Live Location on the map;
5. The location sharing process usually lasts for 1 hour and you can stop it at any time according to your needs.

Using Third-party App

Another easy way to share location is to use a third-party app that comes with an accurate geolocation feature. You just need to look up someone’s phone number online and the system will automatically do the rest of the work. It’s well compatible with both iOS and Android devices.

To enable the location sharing feature, you should:

1. First and foremost, knowing the phone number of the target person or people;
2. Go to their official https://www.viespy.com and sign up for a new account;
3. Type in the target phone number you wish to locate;
4. Choose the subscription plan and complete the purchase online;
5. Enter the phone number to receive the location result;

With only several simple steps, then you can see the real-time location of the person on your device. As for location sharing, you can view details like address, longitude, and latitude, timestamp in the location log below the map.

Location Sharing Can Be Revoked at Any Time

In case you don’t feel the need to let someone know your location or someone is unwilling to share it with you, then you can stop sharing in a few taps as we mentioned below.

To revoke location sharing setting on an iPhone:

1. Open Settings and click on Privacy;
2. Tap on Location Services and click Turn Off;

If you want to turn location services back on again, follow these same steps above and tap the On option.

Stop location sharing on Android devices:

1. Scroll down the screen and click the Settings menu;
2. Press on the Location icon and choose Location;
3. Find the Use location feature at the top and toggle it off.

To Sum Up

Location-sharing apps and software work best as a joint commitment. For this, you and the other person involved should both feel comfortable with the feature and should be happy to share their location. Also, I think it is the reason why this feature works best with family members and closest friends.

Learn how to set up location sharing on your cell phone and make full use of the feature today!