If you’re trying to find a reliable location-sharing app for everyday family use—or simply to meet up more easily—you’ve probably noticed how many options are out there. To narrow it down, we tested a wide range of apps, including Life360, Google Maps, Glympse, and VigilKids.
In this guide you will see simple verdicts and hands-on results across key criteria: accuracy, battery impact, privacy and useful features. I also include real tests, a parent viewpoint and a practical look at how VigilKids performs in everyday family scenarios. Let’s dive in!
- Table Of Contents
- Quick picks: Best location sharing apps at a glance
- Best best location sharing app by use-case
-
for family safety (parents & kids)
- for cross-platform live location sharing
- for location sharing with temporary meetups
- for android (battery-conscious & offline features)
- Deep comparison for the best location sharing app
- FAQs about best location sharing app
Quick picks: Best location sharing apps at a glance
If you want an answer right away, these are the best location sharing apps we tested, pick the perfect solution according to your different needs.
- Google Maps — Best for quick cross-platform sharing. Easy to use, no extra installs if you already have it, great for meetups.
- Life360 — Best for family safety. Gives location history, driving alerts and geofences for parents who want more features.
- VigilKids — Best for parent-child balance. Designed for kids and parents with privacy controls and simple safety alerts.
- Glympse — Best temporary sharing. Share your live location for a set time without an account, great for short meetups.
- GeoZilla — Best location sharing app android. Lightweight background tracking and family circles make it a strong pick for Android.
- Find My (Apple) — Best if everyone uses an iPhone. Built into iOS, reliable and private for Apple-only groups.
If you need the best app for sharing location in a specific scenario, keep reading for detailed picks and hands-on notes.
Best best location sharing app by use-case
We ran each app through the same simple scenarios so you get honest, usable results.
Tests covered real-time refresh frequency, how stable location stays in the background (especially on iPhone), battery impact, geofence accuracy, SOS and crash detection, and a quick privacy policy review. We installed every app from the EaseUS Top 9 list plus Life360, Google Maps, Glympse and VigilKids, and checked core features on both Android and iOS.
For Android we also looked at how each app behaved when device battery optimization was on and off, since that often determines whether an app is the best location app for android for you.
Finally we ran parent and guardian tests on kids devices and on an elderly phone to see which apps give useful alerts without creating anxiety. VigilKids stood out in those family tests for balancing visibility and respect for kids.
1 Best location sharing app for family safety (parents & kids)
If your priority is keeping family members safe, choose an app that gives clear alerts and respectful controls. VigilKids is our top pick here. It gives parents useful location reports, simple SOS alerts, and clear privacy settings so kids feel less monitored. Life360 and FamiSafe are good alternatives if you want driving alerts or deeper parental controls.
What you get with VigilKids:
- Easy onboarding for parents and kids with a clean dashboard
- Adjustable privacy windows so kids are not tracked 24/7
- Real-time GPS tracking with location history reports
- Quick alerts for arrivals, departures, and emergencies (SOS)
- WhatsApp monitoring, including chat messages, shared media, and contact activity
- SMS text message monitoring for better visibility into unknown contacts
How to track family phone location with the best location sharing app? Step-by-step guide
If you're setting up family location sharing for the first time, follow these simple steps to make sure both safety and privacy are respected.
- Step 1. Create your VigilKids account and choose your preferred subscription plan.
- Step 2. Install the app on your child’s phone and complete the guided setup. Make sure location permissions and background updates are enabled.
- Step 3. Customize privacy settings, such as tracking hours, safe zones, and alert preferences.
- Step 4. Access the dashboard to monitor real-time location, review location history, and (if needed) check WhatsApp chats or SMS activity for safety concerns.
Before activating full monitoring, talk openly with your child about why location sharing is being used. When expectations are clear, families tend to build more trust while staying protected.
If you are asking how to track family phone location, start with one of these family apps and test permissions with your child so both of you are comfortable. This balances safety with trust better than blunt tracking alone.
2 Best location sharing app for cross-platform live location sharing (iPhone ↔ Android)
Which app is best for live location sharing? For quick cross-platform live sharing, Google Maps wins for most people. It works on both iPhone and Android, it is free, and sharing can be time-limited. Glympse is great when you need temporary live sharing without an account. VigilKids also supports cross-platform sharing while keeping a family-centered interface.
Tips for smoother live sharing:
- On iPhone, enable Allow While Using App and Background Location for continuous updates.
- On Android, grant high accuracy location and disable aggressive battery optimizations.
These tips address a common problem reported in forums where iOS background rules make live sharing appear unreliable.
3 Best app for location sharing with temporary meetups
For short meetups you want fast sharing with low friction. Glympse and Google Maps both let you send a live location link for a fixed time. This is perfect when you do not want a permanent location circle or account.
Use case examples:
- Meet a friend at a festival: send a 1-hour Glympse link.
- Let a ride driver find you: share a live location in Google Maps for 15 minutes.
Life360 is better for continuous family tracking, not quick meetups. If you wonder what is the best location sharing app for a one-off event, pick Glympse for no-signup sharing or Google Maps for simple, built-in sharing that most people already have.
4Best location app for android (battery-conscious & offline features)
If you mainly use Android, pick an app that respects background limits and battery life. GeoZilla is lightweight and works well when devices enter low power modes. Google Maps performs reliably too when you set location accuracy and turn off battery optimizations for the app. That makes them strong contenders for the best location app for android.
Android setup notes to improve tracking:
- Exempt the app from battery optimization in Settings.
- Enable High Accuracy in Location settings.
- Allow background location access and set the app to run in the background.
Following these steps helps best location sharing apps keep sending updates without killing the battery too fast.
Deep comparison for the best location sharing app
| App | Real-time accuracy | Background stability | Battery impact | Privacy policy | SOS / Crash detection | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life360 | High (frequent updates) | High | Medium to high | Collects usage data, clear parent controls | Yes | Free + premium tiers |
| Google Maps | Good (very reliable) | Medium | Low to medium | Minimal for sharing, data used by Google | No native crash SOS | Free |
| VigilKids | Good (family-tuned) | Good | Low to medium | Focus on parental transparency, limited retention | Yes, simple SOS | Free tier, paid features |
| Glympse | Good for short sessions | N/A (session only) | Low | Minimal, ephemeral links | No | Free |
| GeoZilla | Good | Good on Android | Low | Moderate | Basic alerts | Free + premium |
Summary and practical advice:
Real-time accuracy means how often locations refresh. Life360 gives the most frequent updates, making it strong if you need constant tracking. Google Maps is reliable for casual sharing and uses less battery. VigilKids balances frequent updates with low intrusion, which many families prefer.
Background stability is often the difference between a useful app and a frustrating one. Android tends to allow more stable background updates when you set battery exemptions. That makes GeoZilla and Google Maps good for Android users. For iPhone users you will need to enable background location permissions to get stable updates.
Battery impact varies by polling frequency and how the app handles GPS. If battery life matters most, choose Google Maps or GeoZilla and follow Android setup tips from earlier sections.
Privacy policy matters if you care who sees or stores location history. VigilKids and Glympse aim to minimize retained data. We extended the EaseUS Top 9 review by testing family scenarios and noting how kids react to being tracked, which most lists skip.
Is there a better app than Life360? It depends on your needs. Choose Life360 for full family-safety features, Google Maps for quick cross-platform sharing, and VigilKids if you want a family-first balance between safety and privacy.
FAQs about best location sharing app
Q1: What is the best location sharing app?
The short answer here is: it depends on your needs. For overall family safety and a balanced feature set pick VigilKids or Life360. For casual cross-platform sharing choose Google Maps. See the Quick Picks above for a one-line view of each option. This guide also expands on the EaseUS Top-9 list with real family and guardian scenario testing so you get more practical advice.
Q2: Which app is best for live location sharing?
•Google Maps — best for simple, free, cross-platform live sharing.
•Glympse — best for temporary live sessions without accounts.
•VigilKids — good for continuous family sharing with child-friendly controls.
Pick Google Maps if you want the lowest friction. Pick Glympse for one-off meetups. Pick VigilKids when you need ongoing live sharing plus family safety features.
Q3: Is there a better app than Life360?
“Better” depends on what you value. Choose Life360 for deep family-safety features and driving alerts. Choose VigilKids if you want a softer approach that respects kids’ privacy and reduces anxiety. Choose Google Maps if you only need cross-platform sharing. We tested each in family contexts to highlight these trade-offs.
Q4: How to track family phone location?
Follow the step-by-step How-to section above: install the app, grant Always/background location, exempt it from battery optimization, set geofences, and test. If updates fail, check permissions, disable battery saver and confirm network access.
Conclusion
If you want a single recommendation for everyday family use, choose VigilKids for its balance of accuracy, clarity and trust. For casual one-off sharing, tap the built-in features of Google Maps or send a Glympse link. With these options you can stay connected without sacrificing battery life or privacy. Looking for the best location sharing app for long-term safety and smooth daily use? Try VigilKids first and see how it fits your routine!