Google has begun rolling out real-time location sharing in Google Messages, a feature that has been on the backlog for too long. The novelty was announced at the beginning of March 2026 as part of that month's Android updates, and is now reaching the devices of some users, both in beta and stable versions.
To activate it, simply touch the “+” icon within any conversation and select «Real-time location». From there, the user can choose how long to share their position: one hour, during the day only, until they decide to turn it off manually, or a custom duration of up to 23 hours and 59 minutes. The feature is powered by Google Find Hub, the company's device location platform.
Late, and with a premiere error
The arrival of this function is good news, although with nuances: WhatsApp, Telegram and other messaging apps have been offering something similar for years. That Google has taken so long to implement it in its own application is not a minor detail, especially for a company that has been betting on RCS as a messaging standard.
The premiere has not been impeccable either. Google has added a dot above the “+” icon to alert users of the new feature, but that dot does not disappear even if it has already been accessed, something that several users in Reddit has pointed it out as a possible bug. It's not a critical problem, but in a long-awaited release these small oversights are more noticeable than usual.
Such an interesting novelty has not been seen in Google Messages since the app incorporated the possibility of send stickers and imagessomething that at the time also represented a notable leap in the daily use experience.
That said, the feature was necessary and its arrival improves a real lack of the application.
