Whether you’re using an iPhone or an Android, it can be hard to remember all the steps to turn on location services. Luckily, there’s a simple trick for both smartphones that will make it much easier to turn on location services when you need them and turn them off when you don’t.
Turning on location services is a good idea if you want to use apps like Apple Maps and Google Maps—it’s very handy for navigation! But in order to make the most of your location-based apps, you’ll want to keep location services turned on for as long as possible.
The most basic method for using Google Maps is to tap on the app icon, enter your destination information and press “Go.” If you have location services turned off, you can’t do this. You’ll be greeted with a screen that says your location services are off and asks if you want to turn them on.
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It’s not possible to use your iPhone or Android device to find your way around town without turning on location services. To get directions, see what businesses are nearby, or use apps like Facebook and Instagram, you need to be able to share your location with the application you’re using.
In order to do so, you’ll need to turn on your phone’s location services. This option is available in the settings menu of both iOS and Android devices. The exact steps will vary depending on which operating system you’re using; here’s a quick guide for each platform:
How to Turn On Location Services on iPhone
To turn on location services for iPhones:
- Open Settings
- Scroll down to Privacy and tap it
- Tap Location Services
- Toggle on Location Services.
- If the location services are already enabled, just toggle it off to turn off the iPhone location services.
You should see a pop-up window that details how your device shares its location with different applications and at different times. Make sure that you’re comfortable with these options before continuing.
How to Turn On Location Services on Android
- Tap Settings
- Go to Location.
- Toggle the slider to On.
- Location services will be enabled on your android phone.
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Why to use Location or GPS services on your iPhone and Android?
Setting your phone to allow apps to use your location is an easy way to get a whole lot of cool features. It’s an important part of the Facebook experience, for instance: as you check in at locations, Facebook automatically tags your photos and posts them with information about where they were taken. You can filter local events by location or browse what’s going on right now in any city you’re interested in. There are many other fantastic options too, like finding the best deals near you with Groupon or Foursquare’s Swarm app, or the ability to share your location with friends so they can find you if you get lost.
You can keep track of where your family and friends are.
- Use it to find directions to their house.
- You can make sure they’re safe.
- Mark where you parked your car so you don’t get lost.
The GPS services on your phone work by using a collection of satellites, each of which has their own unique orbit and will only pass over your location once every 12 hours. To get an accurate reading for your location, the device must receive signals from 3 or more satellites.
In order for GPS to function properly, there needs to be an unobstructed view of the sky. If you are indoors or surrounded by a lot of tall buildings, you may not get a good signal. Even driving in a car can interfere with the reception due to the metal body of your vehicle.
In addition to this, there is also a higher chance that your phone will lose its signal when you are moving at high speed. This is because the information between geographically dispersed satellites travels at the speed of light, which is slower than the speed at which an airplane or car moves. Your phone must constantly be switching between different satellites as it tries to find out where it is located, so this process becomes increasingly difficult if you are moving quickly.
Another reason that GPS isn’t always accurate is that the clocks used by each satellite aren’t perfectly calibrated—this makes them just a little bit off from one another.
But there’s one big downside to location services—they use up a lot of battery life! The more apps that are accessing your location at once (like Facebook, Instagram and Google Maps), the faster your battery will drain. And if your battery runs out, you have no way of making calls, sending text messages or checking anything online until it’s recharged again.
That’s why it’s important to know how to control which apps have access to your location and when—especially if you’re using a device that doesn’t have great battery life to begin with.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Location or GPS services on your iPhone and Android?
There are some disadvantages of location services on your phone as well. For one thing, it drains a lot of your battery life! That’s because whenever you use this service to get directions or just directions to somewhere, it uses up a lot of battery power.
It also kind of freaks me out sometimes because I feel like my phone is constantly watching me and following my every move. I don’t like the idea that someone can track me down at any time by using the GPS on my phone. What if someone were to use this technology to stalk me? It’s downright creepy!
- GPS is good for finding where you are, such as meeting up with others or finding your car in a parking lot. You can share with other people where you are and they can track you.
- It helps you meet new people. You can have a GPS based chat room for dating people or just making new friends.
- You can get directions to places near where you live, work or school. You can also look up places like restaurants, hotels and gas stations from the internet that has location based searching so that it only shows places near where you are at instead of all over the world.
Parvinder Singh is a seasoned IT developer and network engineer with over 5 years of experience. He is also a skilled tech columnist, offering insights on the latest trends and developments in the tech industry.