Use Apple Watch instead of phone for location sharing?

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Level 1

52 points

Use Apple Watch instead of phone for location sharing?

I have “share my location” turned on in family sharing. It’s sharing the location of my phone. I’d rather share the location of my watch. Is that possible? In settings>my name>Find My: the “my location” says “this device” and I can’t change it. I thought maybe it’s because my watch doesn’t have cellular, but it also doesn’t show my iPad or my Mac (and find my is turned on for all of them)

so my question- how do I share my location from my watch instead of my phone? (And I don’t mean temporarily sharing my location with one person)

Apple Watch Series 7, watchOS 8

Posted on Oct 21, 2021 5:22 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

javaliga

Level 10

120,173 points

Oct 21, 2021 7:33 PM in response to Alexroett

See the 'Change your sharing device' section in:

Find friends and share your location with Find My - Apple Support

"To change the device that you're sharing your location from, open Find My on that device. Select the Me tab, then choose Use this [device] as My Location." So as I see it, open 'Find My' with your watch.

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Answer 2

Branta_uk

Level 7

32,892 points

Oct 22, 2021 3:58 AM in response to Alexroett

I don't think this is possible in the current software, and I am not convinced it is a practical plan if the Apple Watch is away from the iPhone and using standalone cellular. It is only my subjective impression, but I think to reduce battery drain the watch only updates location when there is a specific need like a polling query from FindMy, rather than continuous updates which are pushed out from the watch on a regular schedule. My guess is a standalone watch would have significantly reduced battery life if it was doing autonomous location broadcasts.

However, my doubts don't mean you should not submit it as a Wishlist item. https://www.apple.com/feedback/

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