Set which apps can access your location on iPhone

With Location Services, you can choose which location-based apps—for example, Reminders, Maps, Camera, and Wallet—can gather and use data indicating your location. Your approximate location is determined using information about your cellular network, local Wi-Fi networks (if you have Wi-Fi turned on), and GPS (if available). When an app is using Location Services, appears in the status bar.

Turn on Location Services

If you didn’t turn on Location Services when you first set up iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, then turn on Location Services.

Turn off Location Services

Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, then choose from the options to turn off Location Services for some apps and services, or for all of them.

If you turn off Location Services, you’re asked to turn it on again the next time an app or service tries to use it.

Review the terms and privacy policy for each third-party app to understand how it uses the data it’s requesting. See the Apple Support article About privacy and Location Services.

Hide the map in Location Services alerts

When you allow an app to always use your location in the background, you may receive alerts about the app’s use of that information. (These alerts let you change your permission, if you want to.) In the alerts, a map shows locations recently accessed by the app.

To hide the map, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Location Alerts, then turn off Show Map in Location Alerts.

With the setting off, you continue to receive location alerts, but the map isn’t shown.

Change Location Services settings for system services

Several system services, such as location-based suggestions and location-based ads, use Location Services.

To see the status for each service, to turn Location Services on or off for each service, or to show in the status bar when enabled system services use your location, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services.

Delete significant locations

The Maps app keeps track of the places you’ve recently visited, as well as when and how often you visited them. Maps uses this information to provide you with personalized services like predictive traffic routing. You can delete this information.

Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations.
Do one of the following:
- Delete a single location: Tap the location, tap Edit, then tap .
- Delete all locations: Tap Clear History. This action clears all your significant locations on any devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID.

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iPhone User Guide