Apple iPhone:
Cloud location services
This course shows you how to locate your other Apple devices and your friends and family using your Apple iPhone, the in-built Find my app and the cloud.
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Transcript
Welcome to the "iPhone Cloud location services" course. When you choose to create an Apple ID as part of setting up an iPhone, you also get a free service called iCloud. In this course, you'll learn how iCloud and the Find My app can help locate your iPhone if it goes missing, share your location with friends and family, and ask others to share their location with you. It should take about 10 minutes to complete the video, but you can pause or rewind to check any steps you're unsure about. Before you get started, check that your iPhone is fully charged and has the latest version of its operating software. You'll also need an internet connection over home Wi-Fi or using mobile data via a mobile phone account and plan. And you'll need to be signed into your Apple ID using its email address and password. Finally, your iPhone should be switched on, unlocked, and showing the Home screen.
From the Home screen, find the Settings icon and tap on it to open it. Because you are assigned into your phone with your Apple ID, your username will be at the top. Tap on it. The Apple ID screen will appear. Find, Find My in the list of options and tap on it. The Find My option screen opens. At the top, tap Find My iPhone. On the next screen, tap the switch next to find my iPhone to turn on the service. The switch will move to the right and change colour. When you turn it on, some more options appear. Find My network is a special service that makes it possible to find your iPhone even if its battery is flat, or if it has no mobile data or wifi reception.
Tap the switch to turn the Find My network on. To test Find My, you can go to the web browser on a computer, type in icloud.com/find, sign in using your Apple ID, and see your iPhone's location on a map. To learn how to locate your iPhone using an Apple computer, watch the video called "Sharing photos and location with the cloud". For now, let's look at how to share your location with friends. Your iPhone should still be showing the Find My iPhone options screen. In the top-left corner, tap the back arrow to go back to the Find My options screen. Under Find My iPhone, you can see My Location. To the right of this, it should say This Device. If you have more than one Apple device, such as an iPad or Mac computer, you could change your location to either of those devices too. Because your iPhone is the device you are most likely to take out of the house with you, it's a good idea to use it to show your location. Under My Location is Share My Location. Tap the switch so that it becomes coloured to turn this feature on. Turning on 'Share My Location' here doesn't mean everyone can see your location now. Instead, it makes it possible to share your location with specific people, using the Find My app. To see your whereabouts on their smartphone, friends or family must be signed into their Apple device with their own Apple ID. Let's look at the Find My app now. Press the Home button to go back to the home screen.
Now locate the Find My app icon. It looks like a radar screen. Your iPhone will come with the Find My app already installed, but if you can't see it, you can download it from the App Store. Tap the Find My icon to open the app. The Find My app's main screen is a map with a blue dot showing the current location of your phone. If your screen looks a little different, tap the Me button at the bottom right of the screen. Remember, the blue dot on the map is the location of your iPhone. If you go out and leave your iPhone at home, anyone who you are sharing your location with will see your location as still being at home. At the bottom of the screen, tap 'People' to see a list of people you are sharing your location with. In our demonstration, we haven't shared our location with anyone yet. So let's do that now. Tap Start Sharing Location. The Share My Location page opens. Enter a contact name or a mobile phone number in the To field. And then tap Send. You might get a message popup warning that this person doesn't seem to be using Find My, or that their phone is not an iPhone. Find My Location sharing only works on an iPhone or iPad. If you know your friend does have an iPhone or iPad, and you still see this message, don't worry. Their phone might be turned off or just not connected to the internet right now. You can continue to share your location by tapping OK. And then tapping 'Send' again. They will see your requests the next time they turn on their iPhone. After you tap Send, a pop up will ask if you want to 'Share for One Hour', 'Share Until End of Day, or 'Share Indefinitely'. Tap the option you prefer.
The Share My Location page will close, and you'll see the Find My map again. Your contact's name will be on the list in the People panel with a note that they can see your location. You won't be able to see their location until they share it with you. If you'd like to stop sharing your location with this person, tap their name in the People panel. The panel changes to show some options. Scroll down the panel until you see 'Stop Sharing My Location' in red. Tap Stop Sharing My Location to stop this person from being able to see your location. Then tap it again in the confirmation panel that pops up.
If someone offers to share their location with you, a notification will appear at the top of the screen, and the People panel will open at the bottom. To accept their offer, tap the Share button. A notification will also appear if someone changes their location. Now that you've exchanged location information, press the Home button to return to the home screen and finish this course. Congratulations, you have learned how to set up your iPhone so you can find it using the Find My service, as well as share your location with friends or family. When you're ready, you can learn how to use your Apple computer to locate a missing iPhone by watching the Apple desktop or laptop video called "Sharing photos and location with the cloud".