Hey everyone! So I have been looking into a few different location related things lately. How do you share your live location with family on Google Maps for free? Also what are good parental monitoring apps for keeping track of kids? And if you lose your phone, what is the best way to find it? Figured I would ask all three at once since they kind of overlap 
Any real tips appreciated!
How To Share Your Live Location on Google Maps (Free)
Great question SyntaxOutlook, I actually set this up for my whole family last year. Here is the full breakdown.
Step by Step: Sharing Live Location
- Open Google Maps on your phone
- Tap your profile picture in the top right corner
- Select “Location sharing”
- Tap “New share”
- Choose how long you want to share: 1 hour, until you turn it off, or a custom time
- Select the contact you want to share with
- Tap Share
The person you share with gets a notification and can see your moving dot on their Google Maps in real time.
Important Notes
Both people need a Google account. The person sharing has full control and can stop sharing at any time. The other person cannot see your location unless you actively choose to share it.
For Families
You can share with multiple people at once. A lot of families set this up so parents and kids can see each other during commutes or after school pickups. It works on both Android and iPhone as long as everyone has the Google Maps app installed 
Adding to what SynapseVector121 said, there is also Google Family Sharing which is slightly different. With location sharing in Google Maps it is peer to peer. With Family Link (Google’s family app) parents can see a child’s location automatically once it is set up on the child’s device. Family Link is free and works well for younger kids. The child gets a notification that location sharing is active so it is fully transparent. You go to families.google.com to set it up and then manage everything from the Family Link parent app. Works on Android devices mainly, though there is limited iPhone support 
For parents specifically, skip constant asking and use Google Family Link (free, official Google tool for kids under 13-18).
Setup: Create a Google account for your child (or supervise their existing one).
On your phone: Install Family Link app → link their device → enable Location in supervision settings.
You see their live location 24/7 in the Family Link app (more accurate than Maps sometimes) + location history.
Bonus tricks: Set screen time limits, app approvals, and get alerts if they leave a certain area. No need for them to “share” manually every time, it’s built into the parent account. Works great alongside Google Maps if you want visual pins.
The official and completely free way is Google Maps Location Sharing. No third-party apps needed. Here’s the full step-by-step (works on Android/iOS and desktop):
Open Google Maps app → tap your profile pic (top right) → Location sharing → New share.
Pick duration: “Until you turn this off” for indefinite live tracking (best trick for ongoing family use).
Share the link via WhatsApp, Messages, email, or directly to contacts. They accept once and boom—live moving pin with battery %, speed, and address.
Pro tip: It keeps working even if Maps is closed (as long as location services + internet are on). Recipient sees it in real-time on their Maps app. You can stop anytime from the same menu. Super reliable for free!
Parental Monitoring Apps: What Actually Works
Since SyntaxOutlook asked about parental monitoring too, let me cover that properly.
Free Options First
Google Family Link is the most accessible free option. It lets you see your child’s location, approve app downloads, set screen time limits, and get weekly activity reports. Setup takes about 10 minutes and both parent and child get the app.
What Family Link Does Not Do
It does not show message content, browsing details, or give you a full picture of app activity. For younger kids this is fine. For teenagers you might want more visibility.
Paid Options Worth Knowing
Apps like Bark, Qustodio, and Xnspy go further. Xnspy in particular is useful for parents who want detailed reports including call logs, app usage patterns, and location history in one dashboard. It is designed for parents monitoring their own child’s device with the child’s knowledge.
The Right Approach
Whatever app you use, being open with your kids about why you have it set up tends to work better long term than them finding out later. Most parental apps work best as a conversation starter, not a secret 
Xnspy user here for my 15-year-old. Google Maps/Family Link are great starters (free & simple), but Xnspy gives peace of mind with the geofence alerts and full history logs. Installed it once on his Android phone (took 5 mins), and now I get live location + notifications if he’s somewhere he shouldn’t be. No battery drain complaints from him since it’s stealth.
Compared to free options: Maps needs ongoing sharing (kids can pause it), Family Link is good but less detailed on routes/history. Xnspy feels like “set it and forget it” for parents. Just remember—use it openly with your kids to build trust, not secretly. Overall, mix free Google tools for daily stuff + Xnspy if you need pro-level monitoring.
To add to TitanMatrix’s point about parental apps, the setup process matters a lot. With most of these apps you physically need the child’s phone in hand to install and configure them. There is no remote install method for legitimate parental apps and any app that claims you can set it up without touching the device is a red flag. For Google Family Link specifically the steps are: install Family Link on parent phone, install Family Link on child phone, follow the in-app pairing steps, and both accounts get linked. The child can see in their settings that Family Link is active. Transparency is built into how these apps work 
For serious parental monitoring (especially if Family Link isn’t detailed enough), check out Xnspy. It’s a dedicated parental control/spy app focused on kids’ safet, not free, but way more powerful than Google tools.
Key features for location:
Real-time live GPS tracking + full location history on an interactive map (shows addresses, timestamps, duration at each stop, routes).
Geofencing alerts: Set “safe zones” (school, home) and get instant notifications if your kid enters/leaves.
Works via Wi-Fi/SIM/GPS, even if they turn off location services sometimes.
Stealth mode: Runs hidden on the child’s Android/iOS device (physical access needed for install on Android; iCloud creds for iOS).
Extra: Tracks calls, texts, social media, web history, all from your web dashboard.
Legal note: Perfectly fine for parents monitoring their own minor kids (under 18) on devices you own or have consent for. Xnspy themselves say it’s for ethical parental/employer use only. Many parents swear by it as a backup when Google tools glitch.
Getting a bit technical here but worth knowing. Google Maps location sharing uses GPS combined with cell tower triangulation and WiFi positioning. In open areas with clear sky the accuracy is usually within 5 to 10 meters. Inside buildings or in dense urban areas it can drift by 50 meters or more. This is not a flaw, it is just how phone location tech works. So if the dot looks like it is inside the wrong building or slightly off, that is normal. For general family coordination it is accurate enough. For precise indoor tracking it is not the right tool and nothing on a phone really is 
Jumping back to the lost phone thing because fluxstellar covered Android well but there is one more option most people forget about. Samsung phones have Samsung Find My Mobile on top of Google Find My Device. If you have a Samsung, go to findmymobile.samsung.com and sign in with your Samsung account. It has some extra features like retrieving recent call logs even after a factory reset and backing up data remotely. You need to have set up a Samsung account beforehand for this to work though. Worth setting up now before you ever need it rather than realizing you never did after the fact 
Since we are covering all the bases, worth mentioning that Apple AirTags are a popular solution for keeping track of physical items like bags, keys, car etc, not phones specifically. They connect to the Find My network and show location on your iPhone. For families who want to track a backpack or car rather than a phone, AirTags are around 29 dollars each. Not free but a one time cost with no subscription. The precision finding feature with UWB on newer iPhones makes finding the tagged item pretty exact when you are nearby. Good addition to the family safety toolkit alongside the phone-based solutions already mentioned 
Okay I want to address something that Krytexis said because I think it is really important and gets overlooked. The fact that legitimate parental apps require physical access to set up is actually a feature not a limitation. It means the process is built around consent and transparency. The child knows the app is there. Compare that to anything that promises invisible setup without touching the device, those are not parental tools, they are something else entirely. Stick to apps that have proper onboarding, are listed on official app stores, and have clear privacy policies. Google Family Link, Bark, Qustodio, Xnspy, all of these are upfront about what they do and how they work 
Putting It All Together: Location Tools for Families
Coming back to SyntaxOutlook’s original question since this thread covered a lot of ground. Here is a clean summary.
For Sharing Live Location With Family
Use Google Maps location sharing. Free, built in, works on Android and iPhone. Both people can see each other and either person can stop sharing at any time.
For Keeping Track of Kids
Google Family Link is the free starting point. For more detailed monitoring, apps like Xnspy give parents a fuller picture of device activity and are designed for transparent use on a child’s device.
For Finding a Lost Phone
Android users: android.com/find using your Google account
iPhone users: Find Devices - Apple iCloud using your Apple ID
Samsung users: findmymobile.samsung.com as an extra layer
General Tips
Set all of these up before you need them. Finding My Device only works if it was enabled beforehand. Same with location sharing. Five minutes of setup now saves a lot of stress later 
Hope this thread helped clarify things for everyone reading!