How to share your location in Google Maps

Google Maps lets you easily share your location with friends and family.

Google uncoupled location sharing from Google+ and brought it back to Maps last month. There were a few missteps along the way as the company phased out the service in Google+ before reintegrating it into Maps, but as of today, the feature is available to all Maps users.

With the feature enabled, you can easily share your location with friends and family. You can broadcast your location for a set duration of time, pick approved contacts, or just create and share a link with your real-time location information.

How to share your location in Google Maps

Open Google Maps from the app drawer or the home screen.
Tap the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) on the top left corner of the screen.
Select Share location.
Tap Get Started.
Use the + icon to select a time period or select the Until you turn this off setting to share your location indefinitely.
Tap Select People.
You'll see a list of your frequent contacts at the top, along with a full list of contacts. Pick the contacts by tapping their name.
Once you've selected the contacts you want to share your location to, tap Share.
You'll see a message saying that the selected contact can view your location.

How to create a shareable link

You can also create a link and use it to share your location easily. Here's how to do it:

Tap the hamburger menu on the top left corner of the screen.
Select Share location.
Tap Get Started.
Select the amount of time you want to share your location.
Tap More.
Select your app of choice to create and send a unique URL that broadcasts your current location. You can email it, send the link via Messenger, or even tweet it to the intended recipient.