WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps, used by over 2 billion people worldwide. One of its key features is the ability to share your live location with contacts, allowing them to see where you are in real-time. This can be useful for meeting up or letting loved ones know you’re safe. But can you forward your live location to others if someone has already shared it with you?
What is live location sharing?
Live location sharing allows you to share your real-time location with your WhatsApp contacts. When enabled, it will update your location on the map periodically so your contacts can see where you currently are. This makes it easy to coordinate meeting up or let others know where you are.
To start sharing live location, open a chat in WhatsApp and tap on the attach button. There you’ll see the option to share your live location. You can choose to share it for 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours. The other person will be able to see your location on a map during this time, with your profile photo displayed on the map so they know it’s you.
The location updates happen in the background, even if you switch to another app. And you can stop sharing at any time. This makes it a very quick and easy way to temporarily share your real-time location with your WhatsApp contacts.
Can you forward a live location?
Unfortunately, there is no way to forward someone’s live location sharing in WhatsApp. The live location can only be seen by the person or group it was initially shared with.
So if your friend shares their live location with you, there is no way for you to then share this with someone else. Only you will be able to view their real-time location updates.
Why you can’t forward live locations
There’s a couple of reasons why WhatsApp doesn’t allow forwarding live locations:
- Privacy – By not allowing forwarding, this prevents the person’s location being shared more widely than they intended.
- Technical limitations – The live location stream is sent directly between two users. There’s no way to “re-share” this stream in a new chat.
So for privacy and technical reasons, the live location sharing is restricted to only the conversation it is initiated in.
Other ways to share location
While you can’t forward live locations, there are some other ways to share location on WhatsApp:
Send location as a one-time update
Instead of live location, you can send your current location as a one-time update. Tap the attach button and select Location to share your current location on the map. This can be forwarded to other chats if you want to let multiple people know where you are.
Share location in group chats
When sharing live location in a group chat, all members of the group will be able to see it. So this can be a handy way to share your location with multiple people at once for coordinating meetups or events.
Use third-party apps
Some third-party apps claim to allow forwarding or saving live locations from WhatsApp. However most don’t work, and they also raise privacy concerns as you have to route your data through unknown services.
Summary
To summarize, there is no built-in way to forward someone’s live location from WhatsApp.
This is due to privacy and technical limitations with how WhatsApp handles live locations. The location stream can only be sent between the person sharing and the recipient.
If you need to share a location with multiple people, the best options are to either send your location one-time as an update, or share it in a group chat where all members can view it.
While some third-party apps claim to allow forwarding live locations, most don’t actually work and they raise security concerns, so it’s best to avoid these.
| Can you forward live locations? | No |
|---|---|
| Why not? | Privacy and technical limitations |
| Alternatives | One-time location sharing, group chat sharing |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I share my live location with someone who is not a contact?
No, you can only share live location with existing contacts in your WhatsApp address book. They also must have an active WhatsApp account to view your live location.
How many people can view my live location at once?
If you share your live location in an individual chat, only that one contact can view it. If shared in a group, up to 256 people in the group can see your live location at the same time.
Does live location work on iPhone and Android?
Yes, live location sharing works on both iPhones and Android phones. As long as the contact you want to share with also has WhatsApp, you can share your live location regardless of device type.
Can I see someone’s location history after they stop sharing?
No, once someone stops sharing live location, you can no longer see their location history or where they have been. The location is only visible to you while they have live location sharing active.
Can I track someone without them knowing?
No, it’s not possible to track someone’s location without their knowledge using WhatsApp’s live location feature. They have full control over when their live location is shared and with whom.
How to use live location sharing
If you want to use WhatsApp’s live location sharing feature, here is a quick guide:
- Open the chat with the contact you want to share with
- Tap Attach > Location > Share Live Location
- Choose duration for sharing (15 min, 1 hour, 8 hours)
- Confirm to start sharing your live location
- Contact can now view your location on map in real-time
- Tap Stop Sharing when you want to end the live location update
It’s that easy! Just keep in mind it only works within an individual or group chat, and can’t be forwarded to other contacts.
Conclusion
Live location sharing is a useful WhatsApp feature for temporarily sharing your real-time location with contacts. But due to privacy and technical reasons, it is not possible to forward these live locations to other chats.
The location stream can only be shared with the original recipient. If you need to share with multiple people, use the alternatives like one-time location sharing or group chat location.
Be wary of third party apps claiming to allow live location forwarding as most don’t actually work. Ultimately, if you need to share a live location with many people simultaneously, a dedicated GPS tracking app may be better suited than WhatsApp.