How to use Google Maps to help someone find you

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Google Maps is great for helping you find your way – or even finding your car – but the app can also help other people find you.

Maps is an easily ignored feature allowing you to share your location information in real time with a person so that she can see exactly where you are, even if you move and then navigate to your location. You can use the same feature to let a trusted person track the progress of your trip to a particular location and know exactly when you are about to arrive.

The best part? It's incredibly easy to do. The trick is to know where to look.

Share your location in real time

When you want someone to follow your position:

You can choose how long you want to share your position
While sharing, a message will remind you at the bottom of the screen.
You can ask the person with whom you share your position to share theirs.

Open the Maps app on your iOS or Android device.
Tap on the blue dot that represents your current position, then select "Share Location" from the menu that appears. (If you are using Google Maps for the first time for this purpose, your phone may ask you to allow the app to access your contacts before continuing.)
If you want to share your location for a certain amount of time, select the "1 hour" option, then use the blue plus and minus buttons to increase or decrease the time according to your needs.
If you want to share your location indefinitely – until you manually disable it – select the option "Until you deactivate this option".
On Android, select the person with whom you want to share your location in the suggested contacts list, or select an app (such as Gmail or Messages) to send a private link. You can also choose to copy the link to your system clipboard and paste it where you want.
On an iPhone, tap "Select People" to choose a person from your contacts, select "Message" to send a private link to someone in your email application or select "More" to send a private link through another service Communication. Your phone may ask you to leave Maps with permanent access to your location before proceeding.
If you share your location in Google Maps itself (by selecting a contact instead of sending a link via an external app), the person you share your location with will get a notification on their phone. In addition, when you select "Location Sharing" in the side menu of Maps, an icon appears at the top for you and the person you are sharing information with. Select the person's icon. A bar at the bottom of the screen will allow you to stop sharing, share your position again or ask the person to share his position with you.

To manually stop Maps from sharing your location:

Open the Maps application and look for the "Share Your Location" bar at the bottom of the screen.
Press the "x" next to the line that indicates how and for how long your position is shared.

Share the progress of your trip

When you want someone to see your location and your estimated time of arrival while you are on your way to a particular destination:

Once you have started a trip, you can share your progress with a friend.
You can send a link to your progress from Maps or via an external application such as an email.
If you wish, you can stop sharing your progress at any time.

Open the Maps application and start navigating to your destination.
Slide your finger up on the bar at the bottom of the screen (where your remaining journey time is displayed), then select "Share Trip Progress" from the menu that appears.
Select the name of the person with whom you want to share your progress, or select an app that you want to use for sharing.

If you want to stop sharing your progress before the end of your trip:

Slide back on the bar at the bottom of the screen
Select "Stop sharing" in the menu that appears.

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