The right way to share your real-time location in Google Messages on Android

Actual-time location sharing is a core characteristic of any in style messaging app, however for years, it has not been obtainable in Google Messages. Nevertheless, that’s lastly altering.

Able to get began? Right here’s what you might want to know.

Though we first noticed real-time location sharing in Google Messages again in February, it wasn’t till late March that the characteristic really started rolling out to customers. On the time of publication, the characteristic is rolling out extensively to the Messages app.

A few my Android Authority colleagues noticed real-time location sharing within the beta model of the Google Messages app, particularly model 20260313_00_RC00.telephone.openbeta. Nevertheless, you don’t must be enrolled within the Messages beta to make use of it.

Actual-time location sharing is on the market on two of my Android telephones, together with model messages.android_20260306_02_RC03.phone_dynamic
com.google.android.apps.messaging on a Google Pixel telephone and model messages.android_20260310_00_RC00.phone_samsung_dynamic on a Samsung Galaxy telephone.

Prepared to begin utilizing real-time location sharing? The excellent news is that it actually couldn’t be simpler. Seize your Android telephone, open Google Messages, and comply with these steps:

1. Open a message thread or begin a dialog with the particular person you need to share your location with.
2. Faucet the + icon within the backside left nook.
3. Faucet Actual-time Location.
4. Faucet Ship.
5. The primary time you share your location, learn the phrases and faucet I settle for.

After sharing your location, it’s displayed as a message within the dialog, together with a preview of the place you might be and the way lengthy your location is being shared for. Moreover, you’ll see a persistent banner on the prime of the dialog that additionally signifies how lengthy the sharing will final.

In case you faucet both the message or the banner, you’ll see a bigger preview of your real-time location, a shortcut to repeat the hyperlink to share it with another person, and a Cease button to cease sharing instantly. When you cease sharing, both manually or as soon as the designated sharing time ends, the banner disappears, and the location-sharing message removes the map and reads “Location share ended.”

Moreover, earlier than you ship your location, you possibly can customise how lengthy you need to share it for. It’s set to 1 hour by default, however you can too change it to “As we speak solely” or create a customized length for nonetheless lengthy (or brief) you’d like.

And that’s all there’s to it! You should utilize real-time location sharing in particular person conversations and in group chats, and there’s no restrict on how typically you should utilize the characteristic. There’s actually no distinction in comparison with real-time location sharing in iMessage, Telegram, or different messaging apps, however it’s nonetheless nice to lastly have it in Google Messages.