Sometimes, you are looking for a person in a busy place, but you cannot locate besides the instructions from the other person. It becomes even worser if both of you are new to the area. In such a situation, fortunately you can use Android smartphone to your rescue. Apps like Google Maps app has an incredible accuracy of locating the phone up to a few meters. In this article, we will describe some common ways to share your location with someone using Android phone.
Share Locations in Android Phone
Depending upon your situation, follow one of the below methods for sharing your location with others.
1. Sharing Location Using SMS
You can share the location using Android’s own short messaging service (SMS). However, both parties must have Google Maps installed on their phones to use this service. The procedure is as follows:
- Start a short message to anyone with whom you want to share the location. While typing the message, press the “+” button on the left side of your text box.
- A new palette will show up on the screen, find the “Location” option and tap on it. Give it access to your phone’s location if it asks for the permission. You may also choose “Precise location” or “Approximate location” on this screen.
- Once you give permission, the map will show your current location. Make any changes if you want and press the SMS button to go back to your message box.
- Android will generate a link for sharing your location. You can finish typing your message and send the SMS with the location link.
- The recipient will receive a link in the message. Clicking on it will open Google Maps and allows to find your shared location.
Though this is a straightforward method to share the location, you need to use the SMS service which may be charged by your mobile operator.
2. Share Location Through Google Maps Using Google Account
You can share the location conveniently with another Android user using a Google account. First, don’t forget to save the recipient’s Gmail address in your Google contacts. Now to share the location, follow the below steps.
- Open Google Maps on your Android phone. Make sure you are signed into your account and tap your profile picture showing in the search box.
- Choose “Location sharing” option from the menu. A page with a map will open up with showing your current location.
- You can see a “New share” button along with some recent contacts below the map which you can choose and share location immediately.
- For sharing location to a new person, tap on “New share” button. This will open a page with various options related to location sharing. The most important is setting the time for sharing real-time locations. You can set the time in hours or choose the “Until you turn this off” option. It is the best practice to share your location based on time. Once that time passes, your real-time location sharing will stop.
- You can also share the location to recent contact by selecting them from the list. If you can’t find the contact in recent list, it is possible to search and find your contact. Finally, hit the “Send” button to share your location.
The recipient will receive a notification about your location. If the recipient taps on the notification, your location will appear on their phone. They can share their location on that screen or follow the directions to reach you by hitting the “Directions” button.
3. Share Location with Google Maps Using Link
If, for some reason, the other person is unable to receive the notification or does not have a Google account, then sharing your location with a link is convenient.
- For that, open your Google Maps and click on your profile picture.
- Choose “Location sharing” and tap on “New share” option.
- You will see a list of messaging apps and other options to share your location. Find the “Copy to Clipboard” button and tap on it.
- This will show you a warning that anyone with this link will be able to see your real-time location. Press the “Share” button to save your location to the clipboard. Now send a message to anyone with whom you want to share the location and paste the link in the message.
On the real-time location sharing screen, you can also use the messaging apps to share location. This is useful if both of you are using a messaging app like WhatsApp or Telegram. A wide variety of options are available on Android for sharing your location using messaging apps. You can simply tap on the app to find the person and share your location. Your location will be sent in the form of a message and the recipient can click and follow the route towards your place.
Note that the accuracy of Google Maps depends on your phone’s mode for location. There are mainly three modes by which Google Maps locate your phone: GPS, mobile tower and Wi-Fi. You can turn on “High accuracy mode” to have good location accuracy.
4. Sharing Location Through Messaging Apps
You can share your location directly in the messaging app with your friends. Almost all the messaging apps have the feature of location sharing. For example, below is the way to share location using WhatsApp:
- Start the chat message in WhatsApp and tap the “Attachment” icon on the text box.
- Choose “Location” option from the available buttons.
- You have two options for sharing – share live location or send your current location.
- Set the duration for sharing location and send the message.
- WhatsApp will automatically stop the location sharing after the set time.
This process is almost similar to other apps as well.
Stopping Location Sharing
WhatsApp and sharing with Google account options allow to setup time duration for sharing your location. However, it is important to know how to stop sharing your location, especially when sharing by a link with Google Maps. If you don’t stop sharing the location, the other person will be seeing your real-time location by following the link. Follow the below instructions to stop sharing your location:
- Open your Google Maps and click on the profile picture.
- Select “Location sharing” option and scroll to the bottom to see your location sharing history.
- Find a shared location which you want to stop and tap on the arrow next to “Sharing via link”. Remember, you should stop each shared location separately.
- Tap on the arrow beside the location sharing and choose “Stop” from the coming menu.
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