Recently, Google rolled out a new feature for Google Maps, which allows you to share your location with others. This way, you could easily allow a loved one to track your journey home, or let a colleague know how far you are from office. The new feature by Google Maps allows you to share your location to anyone, and you can choose how long this information is shared with that contact. Doing so is pretty simple, and it works the same way on both Android and iOS.
This is how you share your real-time location from Google Maps.
1. Launch Google Maps, of course.
2. Tap on the three-lines menu button, or swipe in from the left to reveal the menu and then tap Share location.
3. Alternatively, tap on the blue dot in the bottom right corner, and then tap Share location
4. Tap Get Started to, well get started. Now, you can choose the amount of time you're sharing the contact for, which could be from 15 minutes to 3 days, or you can tap on the button next to Until you turn this off.
5. Next, select the contact to share your location with from recent contacts, shown on the top, by tapping on them.
6. If you want to add a person who isn't in the recent contacts, there's one more step - press the add contact icon which looks like the silhouette of a person with a plus sign.
7. This will show you frequent contacts, or you can tap Select people and then tap on the people you want to add, then tap Share.
That's it - you're sharing your location at this point - the persons you've sent it to will now see a notification on their phone see your location on Google Maps.
There's one more thing you can do though - which is share your trip information with others i.e. if you are driving to a destination, share with others how far you've reached.
This is how you share your trip information with others via Google Maps in real time:
1. In Google Maps, find your destination and start navigation.
2. Tap the arrow pointing up on the bottom right.
3. Tap Share trip progress
4. You'll be promoted to confirm whether you want to share your location. Tap Turn on to continue.
5. Add people as above, and share.
That's all there is to it. To learn more useful things about your devices, check out our how-to section.
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