Life360 vs Apple Find My: The Real Differences (2026)

If the whole family has iPhones, the first option for seeing each other on a map is already installed: Find My. The second one that shows up in every search is Life360, the largest family location app in the world (102 million monthly active users in its second quarter of 2026). Here's the comparison between the two, so you can choose based on facts.

Apple Find My

You share your location with friends and with the Family group (up to six people), for an hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. You can also get alerts when someone arrives at or leaves a place (for recurring alerts, the other person has to accept). It's free, it's built into the system and, with iOS 17 or later, Apple says shared location is end-to-end encrypted between devices and that not even Apple can see it. It also locates your devices and AirTags.

What it doesn't do: it doesn't work with Android (Apple accounts only), it doesn't keep history (it shows the current position, and Apple keeps shared location for 24 hours at most), it has no chat, no SOS of its own (the iPhone's emergency SOS is a separate feature and calls 112), no battery alerts for the people you share with, and no driving reports.

Life360

It works through Circles: a private group with a real-time map, place alerts, chat, low battery alerts, driving reports, crash detection and an SOS button, on iPhone and Android at the same time. In the European Union it sells three plans: Free (2 places with alerts, 2 days of history and ads), Silver at €5.99/month (7 days of history) and Gold at €9.99/month (30 days and individual driver reports), with a 7-day trial.

Two notes for Spain: Life360's automatic 24/7 emergency dispatch is not available here (SOS alerts your Circle and your emergency contacts), and its current privacy policy (August 2026) states that it licenses precise geolocation to partners. In 2022, Life360 announced it would stop selling precise location to data brokers after an investigation by The Markup; the current policy still allows licensing to partners.

Head to head

• Price: Find My, free. Life360, free with ads or €5.99/€9.99 a month.
• iPhone and Android: Find My, Apple only. Life360, both.
• Arrival alerts: both (Life360: 2 places on the free plan).
• History: Find My, no. Life360, 2, 7 or 30 days depending on the plan.
• SOS and chat: Find My, no. Life360, yes (without emergency dispatch in Spain).
• Driving and crashes: Find My, no. Life360, yes (individual reports only on Gold).
• Data: Find My, end-to-end encrypted and no ads. Life360, ads on the free plan and location licensing to partners.
• Kids: both allow accounts for under-13s with an adult (Family in Apple; parental consent in Life360).

Which one to choose

• Find My if everyone has an iPhone and you want to see where each person is, with arrival alerts, for free and with the stronger privacy of the two. For many families, Apple is enough and there's nothing to install.
• Life360 if you mix iPhone and Android, or if you want history, chat, SOS in the same app and driving reports, and you don't mind the ads on the free plan or paying.

There's a third option, and it's ours, so we'll say it with the same honesty: Mi Estela works across iPhone and Android like Life360, with arrival alerts for three places, SOS, battery, chat and video calls for free and with no ads. It doesn't license your location to anyone, and each person chooses whether they appear precisely, by area, or invisible. In exchange, it doesn't do driving reports or crash detection, on purpose. Compared with Life360 and compared with Find My, with the table and the sources.

Sources

• Apple: Sharing your location with friends and family
• Apple: Find My privacy
• Life360: Q2 2026 results
• Life360: privacy policy (Aug 26, 2026)
• The Markup: Life360 will stop selling precise location to brokers (Jan 27, 2022)