How to enable and disable location sharing in Android

Revealing your location to somebody else could be a privacy violation — or it could be useful. If you want to make sure a friend knows you’re on your way, or that your spouse knows that you’re stuck in traffic (and you don’t want to call them while you’re driving), then an active location tracker could be a real help.

In this article, we’ll run through how to set location tracking in an Android phone. This is using a Pixel phone running Android 10; your mileage may vary depending on the manufacturer. And one thing to be aware of: you are the only person who can give others permission to track your location, and you can cancel it at any time.

• Open Google Maps
• Tap your profile image in the upper right corner. Go to “Location sharing” and tap on “new share”

Now you can select who you will share your location with and how long you will share it. The pre-selection is “For one hour,” but you can tap on the plus / minus keys to adjust the timing. If you want the person to have unlimited access to your location, then select “Until you turn this off.”

You’ll then be presented with icons for your favorite and / or most used contacts. If the person you want to give access to isn’t there, swipe left and tap on the three dots labeled “More” to access all your contacts. Either way, when you’ve found the right person, tap on “Share.”

The person you’re sharing with will now be listed at the bottom of the “Location sharing” screen. They will be notified that they now have access to your location.

To stop sharing your location, go to the “Location sharing” page, tap on the person’s name, and tap on the “Stop” button. On this same page, by the way, you can also request that the person you’re sharing your location with share their location with you in turn.

Once you’ve stopped sharing your location, the person’s name will still be there, but there will be a notification that you are not sharing your location with them. This is in case you might want to share again; you won’t have to go through the entire process again — just tap on their name and select the blue “Share location with ” button. If you don’t think you’ll ever want to share with them again, and want to remove their name, tap on the three dots in the upper right corner of the list, and select “Remove from list.”