When you have to meet someone or if you have to go to a place together, instead of wasting time giving voice directions or caravans of cars one after the other, we can use a smartphone to conveniently send the position and allow friends to follow her, so that we can all meet together. Some apps allow you to send the exact position and show it on the map, while others connect people with each other and allow you to see each other, in real time, on the map, to be followed or know where they are and where their friends are going .
In this guide we will show you all the apps to send the position from your mobile phone or be followed in real time, both with an Android smartphone and with an iPhone.
READ ALSO: GPS locator app to find and "stalk" with friends or family
Best apps to send your location
To use all the apps indicated in the guide, we recommend you to activate geolocation on your smartphone (by setting it in High precision mode or similar) and to provide permissions for localization to the same apps, so as to be able to obtain the precise geographical coordinates to be sent to friends and relatives.
Within this app, simply open a chat to a contact or in a group, tap the attachment button in the text field, press the Location button and choose the item Current location .
You can also share your location in real time on Whatsapp . If we want friends or relatives to follow all our movements in real time, we use the Real time position item to track all our movements for a limited period of time (we will choose the time and, if necessary, stop early the sharing).
It is currently one of the most practical and fastest methods to let us know our position, given that WhatsApp is widely used by everyone (young, very young, adults, etc.).
Telegram
Another very popular app with which we can send the location is Telegram, available for free for Android and iOS.
To send the position to friends or relatives we will have to follow a procedure identical to that seen on WhatsApp: we open the chat with the contact or group to send the position to, press the paperclip symbol ( Attachments ), select Position and use the Send key my current position to share our position and Share current position (updated in real time), also choosing for when we have to share our every move.
Telegram is certainly less known than WhatsApp, but its innovative features and functionalities have increased its spread, therefore it is better to learn immediately how to share the position in case you need to provide this type of information.
Facebook Messenger
If we have a lot of friends on Facebook and we want to share our position with them, just use the Facebook Messenger app, which is also available for free for Android and iOS.
Opening this app, all we have to do is go into a chat with one of our contacts, press at the bottom left on the options menu, select the item Position and click on Share the current position (it will be valid for 60 minutes). If, on the other hand, we want to send the indications of a specific place, just press the red button, so as to add a bookmark on the map and share our position (without tracking in real time).
On the subject we can read our guides on Facebook Messenger to share position and movements in real time in chat and on how to share the exact position on Facebook with "Friends nearby" .
Google Maps
sharing the position with Google Maps in real time is quite easy and being an app of maps and directions, it becomes perhaps the most precise solution.
By opening the Maps app, all we have to do is press the position shown on the map (the blue dot), then use the Share your position item and choose, among Google contacts, with whom to share the position in real time (by setting a maximum sharing time or leaving it active until deactivated). The chosen user will only have to open the link received and use Maps to monitor all our movements. If, on the other hand, we only wanted to send the current position, we click anywhere on the map (also close to the blue dot) and select the Share item at the bottom, so as to provide the coordinates of the place where we are.
Any other navigation app can provide the coordinates to be sent to our contacts or in our chats; to use other apps other than Maps, please read the guide Best apps and alternative map sites to Google Maps .
Google Trust Contacts
Google Contacts Trust is a free app for Android and iOS that allows you to let selected friends or family know where we are when they request it or to share our position with them in real time.
Once installed, simply indicate one contact or more trusted contacts among those in the Google address book, so that we can send our position at any time. If our trusted contacts are "worried", they can immediately request the geolocation of our phone, so as to view in real time the movements and the last position recorded by the geolocation system of the phone. The app is very useful for monitoring minors or teenagers, since it works completely automatically (since contacts are trusted, they can always ask for our position).
To learn more about the use of the app, please read the article Let people know where we are .
Other apps to share and track your location
- If all friends and family were only using iPhones, the " Find My Friends " app could come in handy for sharing your location with other people and knowing where they are at all times, at least as long as you want. I had already talked about this app in the article on how to know the location of friends with an iPhone.
- Life360, for iPhone and Android, is an app dedicated to the family, in order to know the position of each person at all times, all the time, not just for a meeting or an occasion. Obviously all the members of the group must have the application installed, must keep GPS enabled and authorize location sharing. Maybe it's a bit excessive, but it can be perfect to know where our little son is at all times.
- Glympse, for Android and iPhone, is currently another popular app for sharing your location from your mobile phone. With Glympse you can locate your position and send it as an SMS to a phone number or via email or even via Whatsapp. Those who receive the message do not need to have the app installed, they just have to open the link to find out where the person who sent it is. Sharing automatically expires after a set time, so as not to allow friends to spy on us even after.
Conclusions
In order to send the position from the mobile phone or be followed in real time, there are really many apps, but we preferred to report the safe ones or in any case managed by serious and well-known companies, so as to minimize the risks concerning privacy. However, we try to use these localization systems sparingly and we share such sensitive information only with trusted people or close relatives, to avoid stalking or the like.Always on the same topic we can read our guides to the Best apps to use around, away from home, in the city .
