How to Stop Sharing Live Location on Telegram

What live location shares, and for how long

Live Location keeps sending your position to a chat for a period you choose: for 15 minutes, for 1 hour, for 8 hours, or until I turn it off. When you start it, Telegram warns that people in the chat "will see your accurate location, including when the app is closed." Telegram's privacy policy says the same: your location is shown to the people you share it with, even when the app is closed, for as long as the feature is on.

Two things are easy to miss:

• "Until I turn it off" really means that. Nothing ends it except you.
• Stopping does not erase the message. The last position stays in the chat as a location message, like any other message.

1. Check whether you are still sharing

While a share is running, the chat shows a bar at the top. On Android it reads Sharing Location... with "tap to add more time"; when you share with more than one chat, the bar says how many. The message itself shows when it was last "updated".

If you are not sure, open the chats where you last sent a location and look for that bar. A live location in the chat that is still moving means it is still on.

2. Stop sharing

A timed share also stops by itself when the time is up. You can stop early at any point; the others see the location stop updating.

3. Delete the location messages that remain

1. Press and hold the location message (right-click on a computer) and choose delete.
2. In a private chat, switch on the option to delete it for the other person too, so it disappears on both sides.
3. In a group you can delete your own messages, but a copy may already have been forwarded or seen. See can deleted chats be recovered?

Ordinary (one-off) location messages work the same way: they are stored like other messages in that chat until someone deletes them.

4. Limit Telegram's access to your location

Sharing only happens when you start it, but the phone permission decides how much Telegram can read at all. If you rarely send locations, reduce it in the phone's own settings:

• Android: phone Settings, Apps, Telegram, Permissions, Location: allow only while using the app, or don't allow.
• iPhone: phone Settings, Telegram, Location: While Using the App, or Never.

With permission set to "while using the app", a share that should continue while Telegram is closed may stop updating. That is the trade-off; for a long share, allow it for that time and reduce it afterwards.

Next step: reporting a bug or suggesting a feature.