- Set alerts for when someone arrives, leaves, or goes missing
- What you need to switch on before you start
- How to flip it around so a friend gets alerts about you
There are plenty of reasons you might want to know a friend or loved one is in the right place at the right time. If they’re happy sharing their location with you, the Find My app can keep you posted.
Messages’ Check In feature is better suited to a quick “I got home okay” after a night out, but Find My is far more flexible and covers more ground. Location-based notifications can alert you every time your kid reaches school, when your partner leaves work, or even when a friend isn’t somewhere they’re supposed to be.
Because this is Apple, it’s all built on trust and privacy – you can’t set any of this up without the other person’s consent. But for families and trusted friends, it’s a genuinely useful tool for peace of mind. Here’s how it works.
First, two things need switching on: Share My Location in Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services, and notifications for Find My in Settings > Notifications > Find My.
Open the People tab in Find My and tap the person you want to keep tabs on. If you don’t already have access to their location, tap Ask To Follow Location and wait for them to accept before going further. Then, under Notifications, tap Add > Notify Me.
You’ll be asked for a when and a where. Choose Arrives, Leaves, or Is Not At, then pick a location. The “Is Not At” option lets you set a time window – handy when you want to know that someone isn’t where they should be, like a kid mysteriously absent from school during class hours, or a partner who hasn’t turned up to work on time.
Finally, pick a frequency: Only Once or Every Time. Bear in mind the other person is notified whenever you set up a new alert, and recurring ones need their approval before they kick in.
You can run this in reverse, too, letting a friend get alerts about your movements. Follow the same steps, but choose Notify [their name] instead of Notify Me when you add the notification.