How to Share Your Location in iOS 8 Messages

Screenshot: WIRED

Sharing a pin drop of your current location is useful. But sometimes it can be more helpful to get continual access to someone’s whereabouts. Mom and dad may want to keep tabs on a child’s location as they drive cross country, for example, or maybe you’re running late to a meeting and want to offer your ETA without constant texting. Third party apps like Glimpse and Twist (RIP) could do this, but with iOS 8, you can also easily share your location through Messages.

Open up Messages then tap on the message thread of the person you want to share your location with. Tap Details, then under Location you can either choose to “Send My Current Location” or “Share My Location.” When you tap the former, you send your contact the usual map with a pin drop on your current GPS location. But if you tap “Share My Location” you get the option to share your location in real time, either for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely.

Once you’ve selected one of those three continual location sharing options, your message thread will include text saying that you started sharing your location with that contact, and at what time. The person you shared your location with gets an inline map of your current location in the message thread, but can also check your updated location with a map in the Details tab of the thread if they’re also an iOS 8 user. If you’re in a multi-person thread and several of you have shared your location, all of your avatars appear plotted out on this map. And at any time, you can hop back into the Details tab of the message and switch location sharing off.

If you’re messaging with someone who’s not on iOS 8 (either an earlier version of iOS or another OS), you can share your current location, but not continuous location sharing. Another caveat: Broadcasting your location constantly like this will undoubtedly impact your battery life, so if you’ve only got 10 percent battery left and need your phone to last the rest of the day, sharing your location may not be the wisest option.