Qotd

Sending a friend or family member a pin drop with your current location in iSO 8 Messages is helpful if you are stationary and want to meet someone at a specific location, such as the local coffee shop. When you are moving, it is much more helpful to share your location continuously so others can see where you without exchanging a barrage of text messages

There are several third-party apps such as Glympse that allow you to share your location continuously for a period, but in iOS 8, the Messages app also includes this non-stop location sharing. Open the Messages app and then tap on a conversation with the person with which you want to share your location. Tap on details in the upper right corner, and you will see two option for sharing your location — “Send My Current Location” or “Share My Location”. The “Send My Current Location” option will send your contact a map with a pin drop of your current GPS location. The “Share My Location” option allows you to share your location in real-time.

Tap “Share My Location” and then select the length of time that you want to share. You can choose to share for one hour, until the end of the day or indefinitely. Once you’ve made your selection, the conversation will include a text byline that confirms that you are sharing your location and when you started sharing it. The recipient can check your location by tapping on the conversation and then selecting the Details link in the upper right corner.

This sharing is not limited to a one-on-one conversation. It also can be used with a group. You can share your location with the members of a group and they can them with you. If several members of a group message are sharing their location, you can view all their avatars on a map by selecting the group messaging thread and tapping details.

When you are done sharing, you can let the time expire on the sharing session or manually turn it off by opening the conversation used to share your location, selecting details and then turning off location sharing.