How to Send Your Location: WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram, Maps, iPhone

There are two things that sound the same but aren't. Sending your current location means sharing a fixed point (“I'm here”). Sharing your live location means letting people watch you move for a while. Here are both for each app, with the steps as they appear on October 15, 2026. If you want to understand what's behind it, see what live location is.

WhatsApp

1. Open the chat and tap the paperclip (Android) or the + (iPhone).
2. Tap Location.
3. For a single pin: Send your current location (or one of the nearby places it suggests).
4. To let people see you move: Share live location and choose 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours.

It's end-to-end encrypted and works the same between iPhone and Android. The long guide, with groups and permissions: sharing location on WhatsApp.

Telegram

1. In the chat, tap the paperclip and choose Location.
2. For a single pin: Send my current location.
3. To let people see you move: Share my live location; you can choose 15 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours or, since 2024, until you turn it off.

What WhatsApp doesn't have: an alert that tells you both when you're close to each other. We cover it in Telegram, step by step.

Google Maps (iPhone and Android)

1. Tap your profile picture (top right) › Location sharing.
2. Choose how long (from one hour, extendable, up to “until you turn it off”) and with whom: a Google contact or Copy link to send it wherever you like.

For a single fixed point: press and hold the spot on the map to drop a pin, then tap Share; it's sent as a link. The full guide: sharing location on Google Maps.

iPhone (Messages and Find My)

1. In a Messages conversation, tap the + and choose Location.
2. You can send your current location or share it live: for one hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely.
3. In the Find My app › People › + › Share My Location, you get the same, with alerts when someone arrives at or leaves a place.

This works between Apple devices; if the other person has Android, use WhatsApp or Google Maps. More in Find My for the family.

By SMS

A classic SMS can't carry maps; it carries a link. So the trick is to take the link from the map and paste it into the message:

• Any phone: in Google Maps (or Apple Maps), press and hold your spot, tap Share and choose Messages. The other person gets a link that opens the map.
• Android with Google Messages: in the chat, tap Attach › Live location. You can choose 1 hour, just today, until you turn it off, or a custom duration (up to 24 hours). You need to be signed in to your Google account, and Google notes that this feature runs through Google Maps underneath, not end-to-end encrypted like messages.

Which one to use, in a table

Two warnings before you share it

• If it's an emergency, call 112. You don't need to send anything: during the call, your phone automatically sends your position to the emergency services. We explain it in what 112 knows about where you are when you call.
• Check the location permission. For live location, the app needs “Always” or “Allow all the time”; otherwise your position freezes when you close it.

And if what you send every day is always the same (“I've got home”), you may not need to send anything at all: in a family app like Mi Estela, the arrival alert goes off on its own when you enter a saved place, and with “Tell me when you arrive” it reaches anyone who doesn't have the app, with a link over WhatsApp.

Sources

• TechRadar: how to share your location on WhatsApp (accessed Oct 15, 2026)
• Droid Life: Telegram updates, indefinite location (Apr 29, 2024; accessed Oct 15, 2026)
• Tech Advisor: sharing location on Google Maps (accessed Oct 15, 2026)
• Google: sharing your live location in Google Messages (accessed Oct 15, 2026)
• Apple: share your location with iPhone (accessed Oct 15, 2026)