Your iPhone uses information from your cell phone service, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS to pinpoint its location, and it also uses your location since your phone is almost always with you. This information can be useful for many things, such as letting others know where you are or finding your phone when it’s lost. Other times, it’s more data that services and companies collect about you, creating privacy concerns.
The good news is that you can tighten your controls so apps can only access your location when needed.
Changing your location settings can differ from phone to phone, depending on the iPhone model you have and what version of iOS it’s running. The following instructions were tested on an iPhone 11 running iOS 15; if you’re running a different version of iOS, there shouldn’t be much of a difference.
Turn off location access for certain apps
Location data is useful for some applications (for example, if you want to order food) and required for others, such as maps or rideshares. However, if an app asks for your location and you don’t think it needs the data, you can disable location services for that app. Here’s how to do it.
- Open settings.
- Go to “Privacy” > “Location Services”.
- “Location Services” will most likely open. If you don’t want to completely cut out all location services (see below), leave it alone
- Scroll down to find the list of all apps that have location services enabled. Each list shows the name of the app and the type of permission it has: “Never”, “Shared” or “While Using”. “When Shared” refers to the “Ask Next Time Or Share” option. By the way, “While Using” usually means “Using the App”, but can sometimes also mean “While Using the App or Widgets”.
- If you want to change a particular app’s access to your location data, click the app list.
If you click “While Using App” then that app can access your location while it is open or in use in the background.
For more ways to limit location access, click “System Services” at the bottom of the “Location Services” screen. Here you can change location access for many things, including Wi-Fi, time zone, emergency calls, and Apple News and App Store ads relevant to your location.
You can see a small arrow to the left of some of the service transitions. A hollow arrow means the item can access your location under certain conditions; A purple arrow means the item has recently used your location, while a gray arrow means it has used your location within the last 24 hours.
To check if your phone is still collecting location data, scroll to the bottom of the “System Services” screen and turn on the “Status Bar Icon” switch. This displays an arrow at the top of your screen whenever an app on your phone accesses your location.
If you really want to get off the network, you can disable location services to prevent your phone from collecting any location data:
- Open settings.
- Go to “Privacy” > “Location Services”.
- Toggle the “Location Services” switch to off.
- Although Location Services will be disabled for all apps, if you use “Find My iPhone” and report your phone lost, you will receive a notification that it will temporarily go online. Select “Close”.
If you have an iPhone 11 or later
If you have a phone designed with Apple’s U1 chip (like the iPhone 11 or later) and have location services disabled for certain apps, you may notice that you sometimes see the arrow. According to Apple, this is because these models use ultra-wideband technology, which Apple says is regulated, so the phones use location services to determine if they’re in an area where ultra-wideband usage is restricted.
iPhone requests location data when location preferences are set on an app-by-app basis, so generally turning off location services for your phone will stop these location requests as your phone won’t be able to collect any location data.
Share your location with individuals
If you’re walking alone at night or alone in an Uber, you can ask a friend or family member to know your location in real time. If you’re using iOS 13 or later, you can use the Find My app to share your location with family and friends.
- Open settings.”
- Go to “Privacy” and make sure “Location Services” is turned on.
- Return to the main “Settings” menu and tap your name at the top.
- Select “Find”.
- Toggle the “Share My Location” option to have it on.
- Then go to the Find My app. If this is your first time using the app, it will ask if you want it to access your location. Choose from “Allow While Using App”, “Allow Once” or “Do Not Allow”.
- You may get a screen explaining that “Find My” can be used with an AirTag or for AirPods and there are apps for watchOS.
- On the map screen that opens, select “People” at the bottom of the screen.
- Click the button that says “Start Sharing Location”.
- In the “To:” field, type the phone number or name of your friend or family member.
- If the person you selected has a phone number that is not associated with the iPhone, you will be notified by a pop-up window. (But you can still share your location.)
- Tap “Send”, then choose “Share for an Hour,” “Share by the End of the Day,” or “Share indefinitely.”
It will then start sharing your location. To turn it off, click your contact’s name in the “Find” app under “People”, then tap “Stop Sharing My Location”. Confirm by clicking the “Stop Location Sharing” button that pops up.
(Note: For some reason, the “Share Until End of Day” selection always seems to choose Pacific Time instead of the local end-of-day time. For example, I’m in Eastern Time and so the “end of day” is always somewhere around 3am. I reached out to Apple to see if they have a fix for this and I’ll let you know when/when I hear back.)
Send duplicate notifications
You can also have your phone send duplicate notifications. These are useful if you want a friend or relative to know that you are going (or not getting) somewhere.
- In the “Find My” app, tap the “People” tab at the bottom of the screen.
- Select the person you want to send notifications to (must be someone you’ve already shared your location with).
- Scroll down until you see the “Notifications” and “Add” tabs.
- A popup at the bottom gives you the option to notify that person. Choose.
You can notify the person when you arrive or leave a certain place and send the notification only once or every time you arrive or leave (for example, if you want to notify someone when you come home from work every day).
Share via Messages
You can also share your location via Messages:
- Open a conversation in Messages.
- Tap the contact name and then click “Info”.
- This will give you the option to “Share My Location” which will give you options to “Share for an Hour”, “Share by the End of the Day” or “Share indefinitely”. Click one of them to start sharing.
- If you want to stop sharing, click “Stop Sharing My Location” where “Share My Location” is. A button labeled “Stop Sharing My Location” will pop up. Click on it.
Update Sep 17, 2021, 10:15 pm ET: This article was originally published on December 12, 2019 and has been updated to account for differences in iOS and available services.
Update Nov 1, 2021 09:45 AM ET: Added a note explaining “Share by the End of the Day” assuming you are always in Pacific Time.
