Google Messages Is Finally Bringing Real-Time Location Sharing To Android

Being able to share your real-time location with friends and family is a cool part of having an Android phone. Over the years, Google has improved its Find Hub services, and we've seen our fair share of other options popping up with real-time sharing like Life360 and more. You can even share your location with others through Google Maps directly, too. As more apps have embraced the act of staying connected all the time, too, we've even seen services like Snapchat pick up location sharing. And now, it looks like Google is taking things one step further by bringing real-time location sharing directly to an app you probably use every day on your Android phone: Google Messages.

Up until now, Google has not had any system in place to make sharing real-time locations with others through its messaging chat easy. You always needed to go outside of the app and use another system, like the Find Hub. However, that looks to be changing, as a recent APK teardown from Android Authority shows that not only is Google working on this feature, but they were even able to get it working on a beta version of the Google Messages app. Once available, it'll be a nice addition to the continued updates Google Messages has received, including upgraded safety functionalities and the ability to delete messages after sending them.

There's no discounting that being able to share real-time location in Google Messages could be game-changing for many Android phone users. That's because it will allow you to check in directly with people right from your messages app, instead of having to navigate to any other service. Currently, Messages only lets you share a static address, which isn't great if you're trying to meet up with a friend who is moving around a good bit, as you'll need to keep sending your location out. But with real-time sharing, that wouldn't be an issue.

According to the teardown, the folks at Android Authority were able to activate the feature on Google Messages version messages.android_20260220_01_RC00.phone.openbeta_dynamic, allowing them to select the option from the attachment sheet that pops up within the actual conversation in Google Messages. Once selected, they were then able to choose from a few different duration options, including one hour, today, and a custom option.

From other screenshots taken of the process, too, it looks like the location sharing ends automatically after a specific duration, making it easy to share your real-time location with someone without having to go through all the hassle of adding them to your Find Hub setup. It appears to send the user that you share your location with a link to Google Maps, but it does so all within the app, so you don't have to jump around. Unfortunately, we don't have any information on when the feature might finally hit Google Messages, so we'll have to wait for more official details.