Google maps: Share live location with friends and family.
Google maps live location sharing will ensure that your friends and family know when you arrive safely at your destination.
Put yourself in this situation. You have just finished dinner at your parents or heading home after a night out with friends. When it’s time to leave they say, “Please don’t forget to give me a ring when you get home safe” and you reply, “How could I forget?”
After a relaxing cup of tea and a soothing shower, your head starts ticking and suddenly you realize, “I forgot”.
In a frenzy, you rush to find your phone and give your parents/ friends a call but find that you have missed 3 calls from the concerned others. Then, you phone back and apologize for not letting them know that you were home safe.
With hijackings being such a real threat it is much better to let someone know the route you are taking and your estimated time of arrival. Google maps live location sharing can give you as well as anyone you want to share your location with peace of mind of where you are on the road and when you get to your journey’s end safely.
Live location sharing is really nifty for when you are:
- Going on a long road trip
- Driving around in an area you aren’t too familiar with and
- Driving anywhere at night
Think about it. If a friend or family member knows that you are going to be at a certain place at a certain time through following your live location and then you are not at that certain place at the estimated time of arrival (ETA), a phone call can be made in a matter of minutes to check if you are okay, if you just stopped off to fill up with petrol, buy some milk or see if something has gone horribly wrong.
It might sound like a stalker-ish feature but, it is so much safer to let your loved ones know where you are because if something does go wrong and you aren’t able to contact them, they can at least track you as long as your phone and data is still on.
Features of Google Maps live location sharing:
- Share location for a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 3 days
- Select people from your google contacts
- Send live location via SMS
- Send as a link (I recommend this option)
Instructions for Google Maps live location sharing:
- Open your Google Maps App
- Click on your menu bar at the top left of your screen
- Look for the tab “Location sharing”
- Tap “Get started”
- In this next step you can set the amount of time you want the live location to be shared for, who you would like to share it with and how you would like the live location to be shared.
- Choose the amount of time you want your live location to be shared for
- Click on the “more” option to create the live location link
- Select how you would like to share the link (I use Whatsapp)
- Choose from your Whatsapp contacts or Whatsapp groups who you want to share the link with
- Click “Next”
- The link will appear with the person’s name that the link will be sent to at the top of your screen
- Click send
Its better to be safe than sorry.
What other helpful safety Apps do you know of? Send your suggestions to siren@bluesecurity.co.za