In this article
Live location shares where you are as you move, for a length of time you choose, and stops on its own. On top of it sits a proximity alert: tell Telegram to ring when someone gets within a distance you set, and stop watching the map.
It is genuinely useful for meeting people and it is the most revealing thing Telegram can send. Both facts deserve equal weight, which is why the duration you pick matters more than any other setting here.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Share your position live for fifteen minutes, an hour or eight, and stop early.
- check_circle Be told when somebody is nearly there instead of watching a map.
- check_circle Tell a live share apart from a one-off pin, which is what most situations want.
- check_circle Know what the other person is told when you set an alert about them.
The bell on the map is the proximity alert — it is set on a person, not on a place.
location_on A pin and a live share are different things
Sending a location pin says where you were when you sent it. It is a single point, it does not change, and for "the restaurant is here" it is the correct answer.
A live share keeps updating for as long as it runs. The recipient sees you move, with an arrow showing which way you are facing, and the message in the chat stays alive until the timer ends or you stop it.
Because it is a message in a chat, everyone in that chat can see it. In a group that means the whole group — obvious when stated, and surprisingly easy to forget when you tap it in a busy conversation.
Four situations, four different answers
Only two of these want a live share at all.
group Finding each other in a crowded place
travel_explore A walk, a ride, a group split across a city
schedule Letting someone know you got back
visibility_off Someone you do not know well asks you to share
The default that fits nearly everything: a pin for a place, fifteen minutes of live for a meeting, and stop it when you arrive.
settings Sharing and alerting
- Attach a location The paperclip, then Location. The first option is the pin; below it is Share My Live Location.
- Choose the duration Fifteen minutes, an hour, eight hours. This is the decision; everything else is detail.
- Set a proximity alert on someone Open the live location message, tap the bell, and choose a distance. It fires once, when they cross it.
- Watch the header While anything is being shared, a bar at the top of the chat list says so. That is how you notice a share you forgot.
- Stop it early From that bar or from the message itself. Stopping is immediate.
This page is sharing where you are on purpose. The curriculum step covers the presence you give away without deciding to: online status, read receipts, and the settings that control who can infer your routine from them.
At a glance
- 1Share live
Pick 15 minutes, an hour or eight hours, and stop early from the bar.
- 2Proximity alert
Get told when someone is close instead of watching the map.
- 3Often a pin is enough
A one-off location reveals less than a live share.
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