all about sharing your location

On your iPhone, you can set which apps can and cannot track your location in Location Services. You can even allow apps to see your location less accurately, and view your frequently visited locations. In this article you will learn everything about the iPhone Location Services function.

Location Services iPhone

Location Services is arguably iOS’ most important privacy feature. If you turn on Location Services for an app, the app will have access to your iPhone’s GPS information. For some apps, sharing your location is essential, such as Google Maps. But not all apps need to know where you are all the time.

To control which apps can track your location (and when), go to Location Services. This is an option in the Settings app. First, let’s talk about turning Location Services on and off. Then we will update you about the other functions.

Turn off location services for all apps

Do you want to turn off Location Services for all apps at the touch of a button, for example because you want to save battery? That’s how you do that:

1. Open the Settings app and tap ‘Privacy’;
2. Tap ‘Location Services;
3. Set the switch behind “Location Services” to gray.
4. Select ‘Turn off’.

Enable or disable location for specific app

In Location Services you can see in a clear list which apps have access to your location, and which don’t. There is also a description behind each app when they can request your location. With ‘Always’, an app can also track your location if you don’t have the app open. With the option ‘When using app’ only when you open the app. Never blocks access to Location Services information for the app.

To enable or disable Location Services for a specific app:

On this page, apps should also explain what the location data is used for. This way you can see whether it is necessary to leave Location Services on, or whether you can also turn off the function.

Share a less specific location

With some apps it is very functional if they know your location, such as a weather app. But does a weather app need to know your location down to the paving stone? Not that. To protect your privacy a little extra, you can choose to share your location less accurately.

By sharing your location less accurately, apps can only approximate your location. They can see that you are within a few kilometers of a certain location, but they don’t know exactly where. This is not convenient to do with a navigation app, but most apps do not become less functional, while you protect your privacy extra.

Here’s how to share your location less accurately in iOS:

1. Open the Settings app and tap ‘Privacy’;
2. Tap “Location Services”;
3. Tap an app and toggle the switch behind ‘Exace location’ to gray.

Turn location alerts on or off

When an iPhone app in the background is tracking your location, sometimes a pop-up message appears. It says something like: “Google Maps has been using 23 locations in the background in the past 3 days. Will you continue to allow this?’ Below that, a map with circles shows at which times the app has requested your location.

These popups are called location notifications. The feature is on by default, but you can turn it off:

1. Open the Settings app and tap ‘Privacy’;
2. Tap “Location Services”;
3. Tap “Location Notifications” and toggle the option on or off.

View your ‘Key locations’

Location Services also keeps track of the locations that are important to you. This data is used for suggestions in the Photos, Calendar, and Maps app, among other things. This is where you’ll find the ‘Points of Interest’ feature:

1. Open the Settings app and tap ‘Privacy’;
2. Tap “Location Services”;
3. Scroll all the way down and tap on ‘System’;
4. Tap “Points of Interest” and turn the option on or off if you want.

The ‘Points of Interest’ are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be read by Apple. If you do not want the data to be kept, tap ‘Clear history’ and turn the option off.

Share location with friends or family

You can share your location with an app, but also with your partner, friend or family. However, you do not do this in Location Services, but in the Find My app, which is installed by default on your iPhone:

1. Open the ‘Find My’ app;
2. Activate the ‘Persons’ tab;
3. Select ‘Start sharing location’;
4. Tap a contact.

Have another question about Location Services on iPhone? Put it below!