Let’s say you’re in a Messages conversation and you want to quickly send someone your current location from iPhone. In this scenario you might go to the Messages conversations Info / Details section and use the “Share Current Location” feature, but did you know there’s an even faster way to instantly share your current location from the iPhone Messages app that can be accessed by typing alone?

This is about as easy as it gets, and sending someone your current location this way is initiated entirely by typing a very short phrase on the iPhone within the Messages app.



That phrase to type is simply:

“I’m at“

Don’t hit send yet, but wait a moment and you’ll see a “Current Location” option show up in the Quick Type bar. Tapping that will immediately get the current location so that you can share it.

Here are the precise steps to see how it works if you’d like to try it yourself:

How to Share Current Location by Messages on iPhone the Fast Way

Open the Messages app and go to any conversation or start a new one with someone else who has iMessages Type “I’m at” and then wait a moment for the QuickType keyboard to show “Current Location” and tap on that Send the message as usual to share your current location in the Messages conversation instantly

This is probably the single fastest way to send someone else your current location from the iPhone within the Messages app. It works the same on iPad too, but for most users sharing location from iPhone is probably more relevant.

You must have Location Services enabled for Messages to have access to this feature, so if you turned off Location Services at some point you will need to turn them back on again (at least at a system level for Messages).

Likewise you’ll need to make sure the Quick Type keyboard is visible too since that’s what you’ll be tapping for quick access to the current location option.

By no means is this the only way to share your location from an iPhone, and one of the most common is to use the “Share Current Location” feature from Messages on iPhone or iPad with a specific contact. But you can also use Maps, mark a spot on Maps and share that location from iOS, use Find My Friends, use Siri to get the current location, get GPS coordinates from iPhone and send those to someone with a classic GPS device or in-car GPS unit, and many third party apps also support location services if you’re using another messenger application.

On the Mac side of things this particular “I’m at” trick does not work, though a Mac user can be a recipient of the shared location. If you’re looking to share location to and from a Mac it might better to instead use Find My Friends on Mac OS to have similar functionality.

Do you know of any other helpful location sharing tricks for messages, the iPhone, or Apple ecosystem in general? Share with us in the comments below!