If you have shared your location with someone and want to stop without them knowing, there are ways to do so. Location sharing is a useful feature for safety reasons, such as tracking your phone or locating friends. It can also be helpful in keeping tabs on your children.
However, this feature does come at a cost to privacy, as those you share with can track your movements. Many people want to turn off location sharing to maintain their privacy. The challenge arises when you want to stop sharing with someone who may inquire about it, such as parents or friends.
Fortunately, there are ways to stop sharing your location without the other person knowing. By restricting access through simple steps, you can prevent them from tracking your movements. It’s important to note that you can also tell if someone has stopped sharing their location with you.
So, if you’re wondering if it’s possible to stop sharing your location without anyone knowing, the answer is yes. Just follow a few simple steps to restrict access and keep your movements private.
1. Turn Off the Find My Phone Feature
Apple introduced a useful feature in the iPhone to locate lost phones, which also enhances its security. However, sometimes we may want to turn off this feature to keep our location private, just like disabling the GPS tracker.
To disable this feature, follow these steps:
- Go to your iPhone’s settings.
- Tap on your name to access your Apple account services.
- Navigate to the “Find My” section.
- Find the “Find My Phone” option and turn off the toggle.
By doing this, the server will no longer be able to access your current location, even if you previously allowed someone to see it. This way, your whereabouts will remain private.
2. How to Tell If Someone Stopped Sharing Location?
Apple offers its users a useful app called “Find My” to track and monitor the location of their mobile phones. This app also allows us to see a list of friends or people who are sharing their location access with us. We can use this list to find out who is sharing their location with us or who has stopped sharing.
To use the Find My app, follow these steps:
- Download the Find My app from the App Store.
- Launch the application and go to the “People” section.
- The list will display all the people who are sharing their location with you. If you cannot find the name you are looking for, it means that the person has stopped sharing their location with you.
It’s important to remember that location sharing is a privacy matter, and not everyone who stops sharing their location is doing something wrong. Everyone has their own reasons for turning off location sharing.
3. Turn off Share My Location
As mentioned earlier, turning off the location-sharing feature on your device will prevent the server from accessing your location altogether. Additionally, the Find My app also provides another useful feature that allows you to restrict location access to specific people without notifying them.
Turn off Share My Location for everyone
There are two ways to turn off location sharing on your iPhone. The first method is through the “Find My” section in your Apple account settings, while the second method is through the Location Services settings. Here are the steps for each method:
Method 1: Through “Find My” settings
- Go to the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Click on your Apple account and navigate to the “Find My” section.
- Turn off the toggle button beside “Share My Location.”
Method 2: Through Location Services settings
- Go to the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Navigate to the “Privacy” section and click on “Location Services.”
- In this section, you can see which apps use your location and when they use it.
- Find the “Find My” app and click on it.
- Turn off the toggle switch next to “Share My Location.”
Using either of these methods, you can easily turn off location sharing on your iPhone to protect your privacy.
Turn off the Location access to certain people using these steps
Method 1:
If you wish to restrict someone’s access to your location using the Find My app, follow these steps:
- Download the “Find My” app from the Apple Store.
- Launch the app and navigate to the “People” section.
- Find the person whose access you want to restrict.
- Tap on their name to open their profile.
- Scroll down and tap “Stop Sharing My Location.”
- Confirm the prompt to stop sharing your location with that person.
Method 2:
You can also restrict location access for specific people using the iMessage app. Here are the steps:
- Open the iMessage app on your iPhone.
- Navigate to the conversation with the person whose location access you want to restrict.
- Tap on the person’s name to view their info.
- Tap on “Info” and then tap on “Stop Sharing My Location.”
- The person won’t receive a notification, but they will be unable to see your location. Note that if they try to view the People list in the Find My app, they won’t see your name on it. If you allow them to access your location again, they will receive a notification and your name will appear in the People list again.
4. Turn On Airplane Mode
Enabling Airplane mode on an iPhone will disable all network and cellular connections, preventing others from seeing your real-time location. To turn on Airplane mode, simply swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen and tap the icon with an airplane symbol.
However, it’s important to note that once Airplane mode is activated, you won’t be able to receive any calls or messages since all cellular networks will be disconnected. You can also turn on Airplane mode by going to Settings, selecting the app, and toggling the Airplane mode switch.
5. Change the IOS device location
If you own multiple iOS devices, you can use the Find My feature to obscure the real-time location of your phones from others. To do this, you must log in to both devices using the same Apple ID, as this is the only way to spoof the location. Here are the steps to hide your location using an iPad and an iPhone:
To hide your phone’s real-time location using an iPad:
- Log in to both devices using the same Apple ID.
- Open the Settings app on your iPad.
- Tap on your name to access your profile.
- Go to the Find My section and turn on Share My Location.
- Also, enable the option to Use this iPad as My Location.
- Leave the iPad at any location and take your phone with you, which will now show the iPad’s location and hide your phone’s location.
To hide your phone’s real-time location using an iPhone:
- Go to the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on your profile.
- In the Location Services section, turn on Share My Location.
- On another device, download the Find My app from the App Store.
- Launch the app and go to the Me section in the settings.
- Turn on the option to Use this iPhone as My Location.
- This will replace your phone’s location with the location of the previous device, just like the iPad.
6. Spoof the GPS location
There are various third-party apps and websites available in the market that can help you spoof your location without revealing your true location to others. While the previously mentioned methods will remove your name from the People section in the Find My app, these third-party apps allow you to fake any location discreetly. One such app is iToolab AnyGo, and here are the steps to fake your location using this app:
- Go to the AnyGo website and download the app on your device.
- Launch the application on your computer and connect your phone to it.
- Give permission to the required fields and click on the start button.
- Click on the Teleport icon to select a location to fake.
- A search bar will appear; enter the desired location name and a list of available locations in and around that location will appear.
- Select a location, and a “Go” prompt will appear on the screen. Tap on it to finish the process.
- Similarly, you can set a virtual location by clicking on the Location Change option in the app and entering a location in the search bar.
You can use any of the above-mentioned ways to stop sharing your location without others knowing. While sharing your location can be useful for safety purposes, it can also compromise your privacy. Therefore, only share your location with people you trust. If you found this helpful, feel free to share it with your friends. For more iPhone tips and tricks, visit TrickyFreaky.