Google Maps' Location Sharing Is Rolling Out To More Users

Google Maps’ location sharing feature is rolling out to more users it seems, which is partially a result of the earlier removal of the same feature from Google+, and following the official announcement from Google last week that it would be introducing the ability for users to share their real-time location via Google Maps. While the feature was already showing up for some users directly after Google announced it, it looks like Google is ready to start making it available on a wider basis and with more users having access to it it’s possible that all Google Maps users could see this feature before the end of the week.

This also come at an interesting time as Facebook just announced yesterday that they would be introducing a location sharing feature in Messenger which also seems to be available to a large number of users at this point. If you’ve yet to open Google+ following this change that was discovered this morning as part of the new app update, then you could easily miss the transition. Under the location option that you can find in the Google+ hamburger menu, tapping on it now greets you with the message that sharing locations has now been moved to Maps, and then it gives you the option to open Maps to share your location. However, tapping on this button doesn’t immediately bring you to the feature which suggests that it isn’t yet available for everyone and is still in the process of reaching more people.

Sharing your location will be pretty simple and the option to do so will be located in the hamburger menu just like it was in Google+, though Google is also making it obvious that the new feature is now available as they’re tacking on a “new” label to the icon. That being said, if you don’t see the share location button in the hamburger menu then you still have some time to wait before it shows up. Unfortunately there isn’t any detail on how long that wait may be. When you go to share a real-time location with a friend or anyone else, you’ll have the option to set a designated amount of time that the recipient can see your location, or you can set it to share until you choose to disable it.