How to Share Location on iPhone
Learn how to share your location on iPhone using Find My, Messages, Apple Maps, and Google Maps. Covers real-time sharing, one-time pins, and sharing with Android users.
Whether you are meeting someone in a crowded place, letting your family know you got home safe, or just trying to help a friend find the restaurant, sharing your location from your iPhone takes about 30 seconds once you know where to tap.
Apple gives you several ways to do it depending on the situation. You can share your live location for an hour or indefinitely, drop a one-time pin, or send your ETA while you are driving. According to a CivicScience survey, 41% of U.S. adults share their location with at least one person, and that number jumps to 65% among adults under 30. If you have not set it up yet, here is how to get started.
Turn on Share My Location
Before you can share your location with anyone, this setting needs to be switched on. It is the master toggle that controls whether your iPhone broadcasts its position at all. Open the Find My app and tap the Me tab at the bottom, then turn on Share My Location. Look at the line reading Sharing From to see which device is actually broadcasting. If it names a device you are not holding, tap Use This iPhone as My Location. You can reach the same settings from Settings, your name, then Find My, if you prefer. If the toggle is grayed out, check that Location Services is enabled. Go to Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Location Services, and make sure the main switch at the top is on. Also check that Find My is set to While Using the App or Always under that same Location Services list.
Good to know: Your iPhone needs a passcode (or Face ID / Touch ID) set up before Share My Location can be turned on at all. If the toggle will not budge, check Settings, then Face ID and Passcode, and make sure a passcode is active.
Share your location through the Find My app
This is the main way to share your real-time location with someone on an ongoing basis. The other person will see exactly where you are on their map, updated continuously. Open the Find My app and tap the People tab at the bottom. Tap the plus button in the top right, then tap Share My Location. Type the person's name or phone number in the "With" field, or tap the contacts button and pick them from your list, then tap Send. Your iPhone will ask how long you want to share. Pick Share for One Hour, Share Until End of Day, or Share Indefinitely. The person you shared with gets a notification on their iPhone. They can tap it to see your location in their own Find My app. They can also choose to share their location back with you, but they do not have to. Sharing is one-directional by default.
Share your location through Messages
If you are already texting someone and want to share your location without switching apps, Messages can do it directly. Open the conversation, tap the plus button next to the text field, then tap Location and tap Share. Pick how long you want to share, one hour, until end of day, or indefinitely, then send it. Your live location appears right below their name at the top of the conversation, and they can tap it any time to see where you are on a map. The older route still works if you prefer it. Tap the person's name or profile picture at the top of the screen, then tap Share My Location. Both land in the same place. There is a faster shortcut when someone actually asks. Type a reply to a message asking where you are and a Current Location button appears above the keyboard, which shares in one tap.
Send a one-time location pin instead
Sometimes you do not need someone tracking you for hours. You just want to drop a pin of where you are right now so they can find you. Open a conversation in Messages, tap the plus button next to the text field, and tap Location. Tap the pin icon in the top left of the map, then drag the map until the pin sits where you want it, and tap Send Pin. It defaults to where you are, but because you can drag it, you can just as easily pin the restaurant door or the far end of a car park. Pinned locations are static and do not update as you move. The other person sees a tappable map card in the conversation. They can tap it to open it in Maps and get directions to you. This works with Android users too. They will get a link they can tap to see the pin in a browser.
Share your ETA while navigating in Apple Maps
When you are driving somewhere and want someone to know when you will arrive, Share ETA is the cleanest option. It sends your live progress along the route and automatically updates if you hit traffic or get delayed. Open Apple Maps, search for your destination, and tap Go to start navigation. Swipe up on the route card at the bottom and tap Share ETA. Pick a contact and tap Send. They will get a notification with your estimated arrival time that updates automatically as you drive. Sharing stops on its own when you arrive or end navigation. The person on the other end sees your ETA and gets a heads-up if you are significantly delayed. This even works with Android users. They receive an SMS with a link that updates every few minutes.
Share with Android users through Google Maps
Find My only works between Apple devices. If the person you want to share with has an Android phone, Google Maps is the best option for real-time location sharing that works both ways. Open Google Maps and tap your profile picture in the top right corner. Tap Location sharing, then tap Share location. Choose how long you want to share (from 15 minutes up to indefinitely), pick a contact or copy a link, and tap Share. The other person sees your real-time location on their map regardless of what phone they use. You can also share during navigation. Start directions in Google Maps, swipe up on the info card, and tap Share trip progress. This works like Apple Maps Share ETA but across all platforms.
Stop sharing and check who can see you
It is worth checking who has access to your location every now and then, especially if you have shared indefinitely with people in the past. Open the Find My app and tap the People tab. You will see everyone you are currently sharing with and everyone who is sharing with you. To stop sharing with someone, tap their name, tap Stop Sharing My Location, then tap Stop Sharing Location to confirm. Your pin disappears from their map. They will see a "Location Expired" notice in Messages if you had been sharing there, but Find My itself does not notify them. To stop sharing with everyone at once, open Find My, tap the Me tab at the bottom, and toggle off Share My Location. For a deeper audit, go to Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Safety Check. This walks you through everyone you are sharing with, every app that has location access, and every device connected to your Apple ID. It is the most thorough way to make sure nobody has access you did not intend.
The method you use depends on the situation. Find My is best for ongoing sharing with people you trust. Messages is fastest when you are already in a conversation. Apple Maps Share ETA is perfect for letting someone know you are on your way. And Google Maps covers the gap when the other person does not have an iPhone. The important thing is knowing where the settings live so you can share quickly when it matters and turn it off just as easily when you are done. If you ever need to turn off Find My entirely, whether for a trade-in, a repair, or a fresh start, our guide on how to turn off Find My iPhone walks through every method including remote removal from iCloud.com.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Barely. Find My uses energy-efficient location updates that piggyback on GPS fixes your phone is already making for other tasks. Apple designed it to have minimal battery impact for background sharing. You are unlikely to notice a difference in daily battery life. More aggressive third-party apps like Life360 can use noticeably more power, but Apple's built-in sharing is lightweight.
Not directly through Find My. Your name simply disappears from their People tab. The one exception is Messages. If you had been sharing through a conversation, a "Location Expired" message appears there once you stop.
Apple merged it into the Find My app in iOS 13 back in September 2019. Find My Friends and Find My iPhone used to be two separate apps. Now they are both part of Find My, with three tabs: People (the old Find My Friends), Devices (the old Find My iPhone), and Items (for AirTags and other accessories). If you had Find My Friends contacts, they carried over automatically.
"Location Not Available" usually means the person was sharing with you but their device cannot be reached right now. Their phone might be off, in Airplane Mode, or out of cellular and Wi-Fi range. "No Location Found" means Find My cannot retrieve their location at all, which can happen if they stopped sharing, signed out of iCloud, or disabled Location Services entirely.
Not through Apple's built-in features. Anyone you share with appears in your Find My People tab, and you can revoke access at any time. The bigger concern is unknown AirTags. If someone hides an AirTag in your belongings, iOS will alert you that an unknown accessory has been traveling with you. These tracking notifications were introduced in iOS 14.5 and have been improved in every release since. You can also run a manual scan from the Find My app under the Items tab.
In Find My, tap People, tap the person's name, then tap Ask To Follow Location. They get the request and choose whether to accept, and nothing appears on your map until they do. In Messages you can tap the plus button, tap Location, then tap Request. There is also a shortcut worth knowing. Send a message ending in the question "Where are you?" and a Request Location button appears above the keyboard. Asking is always a request, never something you can switch on from your side.
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