(If they don’t do so right away, you can tap their name in your Find My Friends list and tap Ask to Follow.) That said, unidirectional sharing is all right, though in families and particularly for children, bidirectional sharing can be more helpful. However you initiate the sharing, the other person receives a notification and can accept and choose to share their location as well. (Share for One Hour and Share Until End of Day are useful for temporarily sharing your location while traveling, say, to visit colleagues with whom permanent sharing would be inappropriate.)

In their conversation, tap the i button, tap Share My Location, and in the popover that appears, tap Share Indefinitely. Add and Remove FriendsĪlthough you can add friends in the Find My Friends app by tapping Add and selecting their contact card, it’s easier to work from Messages, assuming you want to share your location with someone with whom you regularly text anyway. It’s also great for keeping track of aging parents or for housemates looking out for one another. So if you’ve ever thought it would be useful to know when your child left their soccer game or wanted them to receive an automatic alert when you leave to pick them up, Find My Friends is the app for you. Although there are legitimate concerns about sharing your location willy-nilly, Find My Friends gives everyone full control over what they share, making it truly helpful for families and close friends.

As iPhones have become ever more prevalent, one of Apple’s bundled apps-Find My Friends-has become significantly more useful.

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