Many people are hyperaware of the multitude of how we could be tracked with trendy know-how, so you might really feel such as you don’t want so as to add one other to the combo. However realizing the whereabouts of trusted family and friends could be helpful lots of the time, and it’s one thing you are able to do out of your Android telephone.
It’s price saying initially that you just keep in command of who can see you and when — and you’ll cease location sharing at any time if somebody in your life goes from being trusted to distrusted.
I’ve used this many occasions to determine the place to satisfy somebody or to test when visitors are going to reach so I do know precisely how a lot time I’ve acquired left to tidy up. It may be useful for folks, too, to know their children are protected and the place they’re presupposed to be.
Location sharing through Google Maps
The obvious alternative for location sharing on Android is Google Maps, because it comes preinstalled (and is obtainable on iPhones, too). There are different choices you may strive as properly, which I’ll get to.
Location sharing is usually a one-way or two-way association, so you may see different individuals with out them seeing you if you need (and if they enable it). In case you do wish to make your location seen, you could allow location monitoring in your telephone: from Settings in Android, faucet Location, then allow the Use location choice.
To start out sharing your location:
- Open Google Maps in your telephone, and faucet your Google account avatar (high proper).
- Choose Location sharing.
- Faucet New share to start out sharing your location with somebody new.
- Your first choice is how lengthy to share your location: use the + (plus) or – (minus) buttons to set a time interval between quarter-hour and 9 hours.
- Choose Till you flip this off if you happen to’d slightly this contact had been in a position to see your location till you resolve in any other case.
- Decide a contact from the record of options, or faucet Extra to decide on a unique contact.
Your chosen contact then will get an alert in Google Maps saying you’re sharing your location with them. They’ll get the choice to share their location again, however they don’t must. There’s no solution to particularly request to see another person’s location: they both must observe the steps above or reciprocate by your location-sharing message.
The identical Location sharing display screen the place you add new contacts additionally lists the individuals you’re at the moment sharing location information with — you’ll see the whereabouts of all these individuals plotted on the map.
Faucet on a contact within the record beneath the map to zoom in on their exact location. You’ll additionally get an data card telling you the way distant they’re from you, when their location was final up to date, and the battery degree of their telephone (which could be the rationale they’re ignoring your calls).
You’ll be able to faucet Instructions to get instructions out of your present location to the contact or Cease to instantly cease sharing your location with this explicit individual. You may also arrange notifications for a contact:
- Within the Location sharing display screen, faucet the contact you wish to notify.
- Faucet Add subsequent to the Notifications heading.
- Select a location you wish to base the notification round, both by accepting a suggestion from Google Maps or tapping Add location.
- Select whether or not you wish to get notified when the contact arrives at this location, leaves this location, or each.
- Faucet Save after which Save once more. Your chosen contact will get an alert saying that you just’ve arrange the notification, and the notifications themselves will probably be by Google Maps.
- Faucet on Notifications on the location-sharing display screen to edit or delete notifications.
Keep in mind that if you happen to’re utilizing the Google Household Hyperlink app to watch the system of a kid, location monitoring is an choice there, too, by itself devoted tab. You may discover it extra handy to make use of this app slightly than Google Maps on your children — Google has extra details about the characteristic.
Location sharing utilizing different apps
Different apps in your telephone might have some form of location-sharing characteristic constructed into them as properly. In WhatsApp, for instance, you may faucet the paper clip icon on the backside of a dialog, then faucet Location to let somebody know the place you might be for a interval of as much as eight hours.
Places could be shared along with your family and friends in Snapchat, too, through the Snap Map. Faucet the map pin icon (decrease left) on the principle display screen to see the place your entire contacts are — or not less than these contacts sharing their location with you. Faucet the gear icon up within the top-right nook to set which of your folks are in a position to see the place you might be.
By way of devoted location-sharing apps not made by Google, Glympse is one of the best one I’ve come throughout. You get loads of choices for managing who can see your location and when, and you’ll even use it with individuals who don’t have Glympse put in on their telephones. (They’ll be despatched a hyperlink to a map on the internet.)
Life360 is nice, too, but it surely’s geared primarily towards households. In addition to providing location-sharing options (together with location-based alerts) that you just and your children could make use of, the app additionally gives personal messaging and system monitoring options. It might probably even warn you if it thinks a member of the family has been concerned in an accident utilizing telephone sensors in the identical approach as Google’s Private Security app.
