WhatsApp’s live location sharing feature allows users to share their real-time location with contacts. This can be useful for letting friends and family know where you are, coordinating meetups, or sharing your location in an emergency. But how long can you share your live location on WhatsApp and is there a time limit?
How WhatsApp Live Location Works
When you opt to share your live location in WhatsApp, it will send real-time GPS updates from your phone to the recipient(s) you choose. This allows them to see where you are on a map, along with estimates for how far away you are.
Location sharing works both in individual and group chats. You can choose to stop sharing at any time. The user interface makes it clear you are actively sharing your location.
Some key things to know about live location sharing in WhatsApp:
- It uses GPS and data connectivity on your phone to update your location.
- Location accuracy depends on GPS signal strength and quality.
- Others see your location on a map with an indicator showing your contact name.
- It works when the app is running in the foreground or background.
- Recipients can be saved contacts or anyone in a group chat.
Overall, it provides a simple way to let contacts view and track your real-time location for coordination or safety purposes.
Default Time Limit for Sharing
By default, WhatsApp has a time limit for how long you can share live location:
– The maximum duration is 8 hours.
– After 8 hours, live location sharing will automatically stop.
This means if you activate location sharing, it will turn off by itself 8 hours later unless you manually stop it before then.
The 8 hour limit helps avoid accidentally draining battery or using data by sharing your location indefinitely. Most use cases like meeting up or letting someone follow your trip home typically need much less than 8 hours of location streaming.
Example Scenario
For example, say you activate live location sharing through WhatsApp at 8 AM before heading out for the day. With the 8 hour limit, this location access would expire and switch off automatically at 4 PM in the afternoon.
At any point within the 8 hours, you can manually stop location sharing if you no longer need others to view your live location. But even if you forget to turn it off, it will automatically stop sharing after 8 hours.
Can You Extend the Time Limit?
The 8 hour duration is the maximum amount of time WhatsApp allows for a single instance of location sharing.
There is no setting to extend this time limit beyond 8 hours. Once the 8 hours is up, your live location access expires and automatically turns off.
If you need to continue sharing your live location after 8 hours, you would have to manually re-enable the option in WhatsApp again. Your contacts would see this as a separate instance of location sharing.
Workarounds
While you cannot extend a single location sharing session beyond 8 hours, there are some workarounds:
- Restart location sharing every 8 hours. This creates multiple 8 hour sessions.
- Use a third party app for long-term tracking without timeouts.
- Plan meetups within the 8 hour window if possible.
But the WhatsApp platform itself enforces the 8 hour limit per instance, with no extensions. This limit is fixed by WhatsApp and cannot be changed through user settings.
Location History and Privacy
An important aspect of live location sharing is that WhatsApp states it does not retain location history or data after location sharing ends.
According to their help documentation:
“Live location is end-to-end encrypted, which means no one outside of this chat, not even WhatsApp, can see your location. Once location sharing ends, live location information is no longer visible or accessible to anyone in the chat.”
So there are no location logs, tracking history, or data retained by WhatsApp after you stop sharing live location. It provides real-time access to your location only during the sharing instance.
However, contacts in the chat can take screenshots to retain your location if needed. There are also third party apps that can cache location data sent through WhatsApp.
Location Privacy
In summary, WhatsApp states they do not keep records of your shared live locations. But recipients have access to your real-time location while it is being shared.
You have control through the 8 hour limit, manual stop sharing, and selecting who to share with. As always, it’s smart to be prudent about who you share personal location data with through any app.
Changing the Time Limit
Currently, there is no way to adjust or change the 8 hour time limit imposed on live location sharing in WhatsApp. This maximum duration is hard-coded into the app itself.
Some users have suggested options to customize the time limit in WhatsApp settings, such as:
- 12 hour maximum duration
- 24 hour maximum duration
- Indefinite sharing until manually stopped
But at present, none of these options exist. The 8 hour limit is fixed and mandatory across WhatsApp.
Certain third party apps offer unlimited location tracking. But within WhatsApp itself, all users are constrained to the 8 hour sharing window by default.
Why 8 Hours?
The 8 hour limit provides a balance between utility and privacy:
- It allows enough time for most temporary location sharing needs.
- Prevents battery drain and high data usage from indefinite sharing.
- Gives users control without having to remember to stop sharing.
- Limits visibility of user locations to reasonable scenarios.
In short, 8 hours appears to be WhatsApp’s ‘sweet spot’ for live location sharing based on use cases. It avoids open-ended location access while permitting short term check-ins and coordination.
Location Sharing Usage Examples
Here are some examples of how the 8 hour time limit may impact live location usage in WhatsApp:
Daily Commute
Sharing your commute to work with family. This typically needs less than 1-2 hours of location access in the morning and evening. Well within the 8 hour limit.
Road Trip
Following along on a long road trip with friends. Since most road trips span multiple days, you’d need to re-enable location sharing every 8 hours.
Events
Meeting up at a concert, festival, or convention. An all-day event may need a couple rounds of location sharing to cover the full duration.
Travel
Sharing your location while traveling abroad. You might need to turn on location at the start of each day of your trip.
Emergencies
Sharing your location during emergencies or natural disasters. You’d need to manually re-enable it every 8 hours.
So in practice, the 8 hour limit accommodates short term, temporary needs fairly well. For longer term sharing, regular re-activation is required.
Comparison With Other Apps
Some key differences in live location sharing time limits compared to other apps:
| App | Max Duration |
|---|---|
| 8 hours | |
| Google Maps | 3 days |
| Apple Find My Friends | Indefinite until stopped |
| Snapchat | 8 hours |
| Facebook Messenger | 1 hour |
As the table shows, apps take different approaches. WhatsApp matches Snapchat with an 8 hour limit. Google Maps allows up to 3 days. And Apple Find My Friends has no time constraint.
So WhatsApp provides one of the shorter temporary live location sharing features. But the flexibility to restart it helps overcome the constraints of the 8 hour cap.
Third Party Location Sharing Apps
If the 8 hour limit is too restrictive, third party apps offer unlimited location sharing and tracking:
- Life360 – Share locations with family and control notifications. No time limit on location sharing.
- Glympse – Real-time GPS tracking with customizable timers up to 24 hours.
- Familonet – Track family members with no time restrictions.
- Find My Kids – Monitor your children’s locations 24/7.
These apps can run continuously in the background with no timeouts. However, both parties need to install the app, unlike WhatsApp which has wider usage.
Potential Downsides
Extended location sharing can have some downsides to consider as well:
- Continuous battery drain on mobile devices
- Ongoing high data usage
- Privacy concerns from persistent location visibility
The 8 hour limit by WhatsApp aims to strike a balance, providing short term sharing for coordination while limiting prolonged tracking.
Workaround for Long Term Sharing
If you need to share your live location beyond 8 hours in WhatsApp, there is a workaround:
You can create a WhatsApp group and include the contacts that should view your location. When your location expires after 8 hours, leave the group then rejoin.
This will let you re-share your live location in the same group chat. You can repeat this whenever the 8 hours is up.
While not seamless, it allows you to maintain an ongoing view of your location in WhatsApp over a long period, without having to repeatedly send the share invitation manually.
How It Works
Here is how this workaround functions:
- Create a new WhatsApp group with the contacts you want to share with.
- Activate live location sharing in the group which lasts 8 hours.
- After 8 hours, leave the group, then immediately rejoin.
- Share your live location in the group again.
- Repeat steps 3-4 each time the 8 hour period ends.
By rejoining the group, your location will appear as a new live share instance that gets another 8 hours. This essentially resets the timer repeatedly.
Caveats
Some caveats to note with this group workaround:
- There may be brief moments where your location drops out during the transitions.
- Leaving and rejoining frequently may be disruptive to group conversation flow.
- You need an active internet connection to rejoin the group and restart sharing.
But if you need to share location beyond 8 hours, this group method can provide a functional workaround within WhatsApp’s limitations.
Conclusion
To summarize key points about WhatsApp’s live location time limit:
- The maximum duration for location sharing is 8 hours.
- The 8 hour limit cannot be extended, it is fixed by WhatsApp.
- You can restart sharing after 8 hours for a new 8 hour period.
- No location history is retained by WhatsApp after sharing ends.
- Third party apps offer unlimited location tracking if needed.
- Leaving and rejoining a group lets you restart sharing as a workaround.
So while you cannot exceed the 8 hour cap directly, there are ways to essentially chain multiple 8 hours blocks back-to-back if required. Understanding and working within the time limit allows you to make the most of WhatsApp’s live location sharing feature.