Sharing your location with a contact can be extremely useful if you're lost or if your car has broken down in an area you're not familiar with. Rather than try to explain to someone where you are, you can easily share your location with them using a smartphone.

You can share your location using a variety of apps including Google Maps, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, and more. If you're preferred messenger app is WhatsApp, sharing your location with a contact, or a group, is pretty easy.

Just do the following:

  1. Open up a chat conversation with the group or individual contact you want to send your location to. Tap the button and select Location.
  2. If you don't have location settings turned on for WhatsApp, the app will take you to your phone's settings where you can turn them on. (You can select the option to turn location settings on only while using the app.)
  3. Tap Send your current location if you want them to receive your current location. If you want them to know where you are at all times, tap Share Live Location. (You will have to choose to allow WhatsApp to access your location at all times for this feature to work.)
  4. Your contact will receive a clickable map in your chat. The map will open up in a map app within WhatsApp, and they can then open that in the map app of their choice. iOS users, for example, can open it in Apple Maps or in Google Maps if they have it installed on their phones.

Do you find this feature useful? What scenarios can you think of where you might need to share your location with a contact? Let us know in the comments.