What to Know
- When you stop sharing your location in iMessage, it does not notify the other person.
- If you are worried about the other person finding out, you can temporarily disable location sharing in Find My.
- Instead of sharing your location indefinitely, try sharing it for only one hour or send a Check In.
Sharing your location with a trusted contact can be useful for safety purposes or if you want to provide a friend with an estimated time of arrival. However, at some point, you might not want to continue sharing your location. So how do you stop sharing your location without them knowing?
Jump To:
- How to Stop Sharing Location without Them Knowing
- How to Temporarily Turn Off Location
- Alternatives to Location Sharing
- Location Sharing FAQ
How to Turn Off Location without the Other Person Knowing
If you want to stop sharing your location without the other person knowing, the good news is that there is no notification when you stop sharing your location. You will see a message in your iMessage conversation that says, “You stopped sharing location with [contact].”
However, this message is only visible to you, and the other person will not see that you have stopped sharing your location (unless they try to check your location and realize they can’t). On the other hand, if you start sharing your location again, they will receive a notification that you started sharing your location. To stop sharing location without notifying in iMessage:
- Open the Find My app.
![iphone spotlight search with find my app circled in red]()
- Tap People in the lower left corner.
![iphone find my app with people tab circled in red]()
- Tap the person with whom you want to stop sharing your location.
![iphone find my people tab with contact circled in red]()
- Scroll down and tap Stop Sharing My Location.
![iphone find my people screen with stop sharing my location button circled in red]()
- Tap Stop Sharing Location to confirm.
![iphone stop sharing location confirmation window with stop sharing location circled in red]()
Your location will no longer be shared with this contact. That’s how to stop sharing your location without them knowing! For more iPhone tips and tricks, check out our free Tip of the Day newsletter.
How to Temporarily Turn Off Location on iPhone without Them Knowing
You can also temporarily switch off location-sharing if you only want to stop sharing your location for a short amount of time:
- Open the Find My app.
![iphone spotlight search with find my app circled in red]()
- Tap Me in the bottom right corner.
![iphone find my app with me tab circled in red]()
- Tap the toggle next to Share My Location to disable location sharing.
![iphone find my app with active share location toggle circled in red]()
- Tap the toggle to re-enable location sharing when you are ready.
![iphone find my app with disabled share location toggle circled in red]()
Note: This only disables location sharing for as long as you have the toggle switched off. When you switch it back on, your location will continue to be shared. Keep in mind that when this toggle is disabled, Find My will not be able to locate your phone if you lose it.
This will stop sharing location without notifying in iMessage until you re-enable the toggle.
Alternatives to Location Sharing
If you don’t want to share your location with someone indefinitely but you still want them to be able to locate you for safety purposes, consider instead only sharing your location for one hour or until the end of the day (see Step 7 for reference).
Alternatively, if you and your contact are both running iOS 17, try sending a Check In instead. This allows your trusted contact to temporarily see your location until you can confirm that you’ve reached your destination safely. This also prevents you from having to turn off location on your iPhone without them knowing.
FAQ
- Does someone get notified when you stop sharing location? No. While you will see a notification in your iMessage conversation that you stopped sharing your location, this message is only visible to you, not the other person. The only way they will know you stopped sharing your location is if they try to check your location and notice it is no longer there.
- How do I turn off my phone location? You can turn off location services in the Settings app. Simply tap Privacy & Security, then tap Location Services, and then tap the toggle to disable Location Services. Keep in mind that this will also affect functionality with weather and navigation apps since they depend on your location to work.
