Like many ride-sharing apps, Google Maps now also lets you share your real-time location with your contacts. So, now you can share update your friend with your real-time location without having to text or call them when you leave from home.
Before we get started, make sure to update Google Maps from the Play Store or App Store.
Here is how it works.
- Open the Google Maps app
- Search for your destination
- Start navigating to it.
- Once you’re in navigation mode, swipe up.
- A menu will appear. On it and, tap the Share trip progress
- Select a contact to Share trip progress
Your contact will get a notification on their phone, with Google maps link, tap on which will open Google maps and will show you real-time location. Now they will see your real-time location until you arrived. However, if you decided to cancel location sharing halfway, you can do so by going to previous ‘share trip progress’ option by following the same steps and this time you’ll see a new option to cancel sharing.
Also Read: 7 Ways to Send your Location (GPS coordinates) with Someone
Where it fell short?
The option to share real-time location is not something new. Apps like WhatsApp, Glympse, and Uber, have “share a ride’s progress” feature for years now. So, when Google introduced it, I was expecting some new changes like factoring in the traffic and other conditions while showing the ETA to the contacts. Unfortunately, Google maps don’t do that yet. It’s just the like real-time location tracker like any other apps.
It’s also available in Android auto, simply tap on the arrow that shows extra routes, and there’s an option to share your location. However, if you can’t see that option, you might have to share once on mobile maps and accept the TOS.
Fun fact: To add a speedometer to Google maps, you can use the Velociraptor app.
