Find your friends and family with Find My Device app

To find your friends and family, you can use the Find My Device app to:

Share your location with others
Find others’ location on a map
Take a few different actions for those shares

Set up your Find My Device app

To set up your Find My Device app on your device:

Sign in to the Find My Device app.
Grant app location permissions to display a blue dot on your map and calculate friends’ distance from you.
- If you don't grant the Find My Device app location permission, you can still use the app to find your lost devices and to share your location, but you won't be able to see your blue dot.

Start & stop a share

If you don’t have any shares, to get started, tap Start share.
- You can find a preview of the information that you can share with your recipient, like:
  - Location
  - Name
  - Avatar
  - Address
  - Battery percentage
Choose the duration of the share you want to start from either:
- One hour
- Until the end of the day (ends at 11:59 PM user’s time)
- Until you stop the share
- A custom duration
Choose one or multiple people from your recipients by:
- Using the suggested list: To start your share, tap Create share.
  - You can search for specific contacts with the magnifying glass within the pre-populated list.
  - If the recipient's device has the Find My Device app or Google Maps installed and notifications on, they’ll receive a notification to let them know that you shared your location with them. If they don’t, they’ll receive an email.
- Sharing with a link: Choose your selected duration and tap Get link to share.
  - This opens up a way for you to choose commonly used apps, message threads, and other groups to send the link with.
  - Anyone with the link can see your location and other personal information.
  - “Until you stop” shares can’t be created as a link share.

Tip: If you already have shares on your account in other Google apps, like Maps, Family Link, or Personal Safety, you can view them in Find My Device automatically.

Stop a share

Tap on the user you’d like to stop sharing with.
Tap the “Stop sharing” button.
From the confirmation dialog, you can either:
- Cancel: Your share stays and you go back to the details page.
- Confirm:
  1. If the user is also sharing with you, you’ll stay on the contact detail page and the button will no longer be blue. You can start a new share if you want.
  2. If you’re the only one sharing, you’ll be sent back to the list of shares.

On your device, you can also manage your location shares through Find My Device.

Under “Location Sharing” tab, on the top right, select your profile Location Sharing settings.

Tips:

Location shares are associated with your account.
If you stop a share, it stops for your account, and for all apps using Google Location Sharing, including Find My Device.
You can also manage your shares in other Google location sharing apps, such as Google Maps.
You can also manage your locations shares in your Google Location Sharing settings page:
1. On your Android device, open Settings.
2. Tap Location Location Services Google Location Sharing.

Actions you can take per share

Get directions

Tap on the user you’d like to get directions to Get directions.
Google Maps will open with a route to that person’s location.
- If the user keeps moving, the route won’t continue to update since this is a one-time direction only.

Hide a user

Tap the user you’d like to hide More .
Select Hide from map.
On the confirmation dialogue pop-up, confirm if you want to hide the selected person.
- You can also stop sharing with that person or not with the checkmark.
- You’ll be sent back to the list of shares with a confirmation.

To find the people you hid from your map:

Scroll to the bottom of your list of shares.
On the right of “Hidden from Map,” tap Arrow down .

To unhide someone from your map:

Scroll to the bottom of your list of shares.
On the right of “Hidden from Map,” tap Arrow down .
Tap the user you’d like to unhide.
Tap More .
Select Unhide from map.

Block a user

Tap the user you’d like to block.
Tap More .
Select Block.
From the confirmation dialog, select “Confirm” if you want to block the person.
- You’ll be sent back to the list of shares with a confirmation afterwards.
- If you want to unblock someone, on your Google account, visit your Blocklist.

Tip: When you block a person, it also applies to a variety of Google apps and services, like Photos and Maps. Learn how to block or unblock people’s accounts.

Refresh

You can manually refresh a person’s location. To do this:

Tap the user whose location you’d like to refresh.
Tap More .
Select Refresh.
The dropdown menu will collapse and you’ll find a progress indicator until:
- Timestamp changes to “now”: The person’s location is updated.
- Timestamp didn’t change: The person’s location wasn’t retrieved possibly due to:
  - Their device was either offline or turned off.
  - Location services were turned off.
  - Location sharing was turned off.

Tip: The person’s location will also be automatically refreshed while you use the app.

How to use and understand your list of shares

Manage your list and map

To manage your list and map, you can:

Use Filtering.
- Sharing with you: You can find people who share their location with you. It includes people you’re not sharing back with and people you’re sharing back with.
- You’re sharing with: You can find people you’re sharing your location with. It includes people who aren’t sharing back with you and people who are sharing back with you.
- Neither: You can view all of your shares, including incoming, outgoing, and people you are sharing with who are also sharing with you.

Tip: You can’t select both filters at the same time.

Center your location within the map.
- If you grant Find My Device access to your location, you can center your location within your map view. At the bottom right corner of the map, tap the My Location .
Use the + button to start a new share.

How to read the list

Map
- It shows the people who share their location with you and aren’t hidden.
Hidden list
- If you hide a user from appearing on your map, they’ll be placed in a collapsible list at the bottom of the list of shares.
- You can unhide them:
  - Select their name.
  - In their contact details page, from the overflow menu, unhide them.
Legend for all of the information shown about a person
- Users who share their location with you:
  - Name
  - Avatar
  - Current location address
  - Location last updated timestamp
  - If they can or can’t find your location
    - “Can see your location”: If you’ve shared your location with them and they can find it.
  - Distance from you
- Users who don’t share their location with you:
  - Name
  - Avatar
  - If they can or can’t find your location
    - “Can see your location”: If you’ve shared your location with them and they can find it.
- Users who share their location with you, but you’ve hidden:
  - Name
  - Grayed out avatar
  - If they can or can’t see your location
    - “Can see your location”: If you’ve shared your location with them and they can find it.

Location sharing settings

You can stop your device from sharing your real-time location without needing to stop a share in the Find My Device app. Learn how to manage your location sharing settings.

Tip: You can still use other device location services, like navigation in Maps, when you turn off location sharing in the settings.