How to share your live location with others from your iPhone

Find out how to share your real-time live location continuously for a few minutes, hours, or indefinitely from your iPhone with family members and friends who either have an iPhone or an Android phone.

This will allow the other side to see your current and changing location at all times, helping them keep track of your progress.

Before you begin:

• Make sure location services are enabled on your iPhone.
• Allow the app, such as Messages, WhatsApp, Google Maps, or Telegram, to access your precise location at all times or as long as the app is in use.

To manage both the above points, go to iPhone Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services. Now, make sure Location Services are on. Then, tap the app name and select Always (or While Using the App for Messages).

Using Apple’s solutions

We already have a full tutorial showing how to set up real-time location sharing between family members and friends using Apple Messages and Find My. It works if both people have iPhones. Here’s a recap.

1) Open the Messages app and go inside the conversation with that person. If you don’t have an existing conversation, start one.

2) Tap the plus button (+) and select Location. A small map interface will open in the lower portion of your iPhone screen. The small blue dot on the map shows your current location.

3) Tap the Share button and select Indefinitely, Until End of Day, or For One Hour.

4) Type a note if needed and hit the blue send button.

5) The person will get a notification informing them that you started sharing your location with them. Once they tap that alert, it will open the Messages app on their device. They can tap the location card to see your live location.

They can also tap the Open in Find My button to see the location in the People tab of the Find My app.

Using WhatsApp

If you and the person you want to share your location with use WhatsApp, then you can share your live location here. This works even if the other person has an Android phone. But note that, unlike Messages and Find My, you can’t share your location permanently/indefinitely using WhatsApp. The maximum time period is 8 hours.

1) Open WhatsApp Messenger and go inside the conversation with that person.

2) Tap the plus button (+) and select Location.

3) Tap Share live location.

4) Select 15 Minutes, 1 Hour, or 8 Hours, and hit the send button.

Using Google Maps

Google Maps has a handy location-sharing feature that allows you to set up time-based or permanent location sharing between two persons. It’s available on both iPhone and Android, and we’ve explained the entire process here: How to set up permanent location sharing between iPhone and Android

Using Telegram

Much like WhatsApp, you can use Telegram to share your real-time location with friends and family who use an iPhone or Android phone. But unlike WhatsApp, Telegram does offer an option to share your live location indefinitely.

1) Open Telegram Messenger and go to the conversation you have with that person.

2) Tap the paper clip icon and then go to the Location tab.

3) Tap Share My Live Location for and select For 15 minutes, For 1 hour, For 8 hours, or Until I turn it off.

Which method will you be using the most to share your iPhone’s live location with others?

Also, check out: How to share your AirTag with up to five other people

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/10/30/share-live-location-from-iphone/