How to Manage Google Location History from Multiple Devices?

google location history

Android phones and other smartphones with inbuilt GPS can report User’s location to online services with absolute accuracy. Google location history is mostly turned on continuously to provide users a better user experience at the cost of privacy. Most smartphone applications require the location access of the User as well as the User’s location history to provide the optimum User experience. Let’s say Users who installed weather app in their devices needs to ensure their GPS location to get a perfect weather report. A real-time GPS location access by a weather widget is more useful than a preset location.

In this tutorial, we will cover how to manage Google location History from multiple devices.

Table of Content

Managing Google Location History from multiple devices

Google Maps offer platform for all Users to browse the places, which they had visited anytime they want. Note this won’t work for Google My Business accounts. Users can also check all the routes they travelled using the location history feature of Google Maps. In 2015, Google added other features like collating images of Users who had visited a particular location. For example, a person set a journey from place A to B. During the travel; a person can take a picture and assigned a ‘location’ to that picture. Google maps arranged the entire picture taken by the person from point A to B in chronologically arranged, allowing a better overview of the travel.  Users can recheck all the pictures taken by them at a specific location. The feature also allows users to highlight their weekly or monthly activities.

1. Managing Location Reporting Services

What is Location Reporting Service in Google?

The location service in a smartphone combines several types of methods to calculate the current location of the Users. The Location service runs in the background of the phone, and upon request from apps, it provides access to apps that require access to the current location of the Users.

Example

The Google Maps App require Google location history service to update the location history of the Users. Google Maps identify Users current location, and through the satellite navigation feature, it helps Users to calculate the route during travel.

Users who are worried about their privacy can prevent apps to access their location information. Through setting off the location from the smartphone, users can prevent apps to obtain their location information.

The process to change the location setting

Tap the setting icon on the smartphone. After entering the Settings, go to the ‘App Permissions’ option and after that select ‘Location’ option. Then Users can turn their location services on and off as per their requirement. When the button turns blue, it implies that the location service is ON.

2. Different Modes in Location Accuracy on Mobile Devices

 

It’s easy to trace a person even though he/she don’t have a GPS enabled smartphone through utilising other methods of identification. A smartphone has various ways to identify the device location, whether by GPS, wifi or Network provider.

To set the mode of the device, first, click the ‘mode’ option on the device. Don’t click on the ‘blue’ colour softkey as it is only used to turn the location ‘on’ and ‘off’. Clicking on the word ‘Mode’ will take Users to the next menu. In this menu, Users will find three option ‘High Accuracy’, ‘Medium or moderate accuracy’ and ‘Low accuracy’.

GPS is known to provide the most accurate results but while indoors, Users might face accuracy issues. Also, GPS can drain the battery of the smartphone quite fast.

Wi-Fi also provides high accuracy, but sometimes shows strange results depending upon the way it maps the access points.

While travelling or sending a location to a friend, it is best to use the High Accuracy mode.

3. How to manage apps requesting Location Services

Looking carefully under the mode setting, Users can find all the apps or services that have claimed the ‘location service’ to allows device location information of the User. Several Apps like dating apps, Uber, shopping apps etc. often asks for location information and Users can see them. Users can decide whether to allow location accessibility to a specific app or not.

Enabling Google Location History

Users need a Google Account and a mobile device to ‘enable’ their Google Location History. Users with more than one Google Account can enable each account individually. When activated, this feature will send regular reports to the Google Location History service regarding the device location of the Users.

How to Enable Google Location History

First Users must ensure that their device is connected to the internet. The User has to enable their location and make sure they have a registered Google account. Go to settings of your phone then scroll below and tap the ‘Google’ option. After entering the ‘Google’ option, keep scrolling until the ‘location’ option comes. Click on the ‘location’ option and after that click on the Google location History’ option. Upon entering the ‘Google Location History’ option, Users can see all the devices attached with their respective Gmail id. Then Users can turn off or on their location history as per their choice.

The location history tracks the location of the device based on its association with a specific Google Account. However, one Google account can record the location history of multiple devices. Besides, Google can send the location history of one device to multiple Google accounts, if the User has various Google accounts configured in one device.

So one can set the location history not only for one device but also for other devices as well.

4. Managing Google Location history settings

Users can switch their location history from On to Off or vice versa of each device registered to a Google account. The location history of Google cannot differentiate between devices. Users who have two devices operation under one Google account may appear to be in two places at one time. Google maps stores All location history of Users on the internet.

To view the location history, Users have to access the Google History Page which is a part of Google Maps.

The location History Timeline feature may be useful to retrace the places one have visited, but some might find it bothersome when discovered about the amount of information Google collects. However, Users can always pause and unpause their location sharing history from the web interface by visiting the link https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols/location or through following the process mentioned above. People who use multiple Google account have to log in to each account and follow the same process.

Deleting Location History

Users can also erase all their location history from their Location History for a particular day or delete all location history.

To delete all location history Users have to go to the location page of the Google Account and click on manage activity. Upon clicking on the ‘manage activity’ tab, Google will redirect the User to the Google History Timeline.

Deleting all Location

Upon entering the Google History Timeline, Uses will find a small trash can icon on the bottom left of the page. Upon clicking the trashcan icon, a dialogue box will appear ensuring the User if he/she is sure about the decision. The user who wants to delete all history will have to check the ‘I Understand’ button of the dialogue box and click proceed further.

Deleting one-day location history

Users who want to delete a location history of One day can do that just by selecting the day, month, and year at the timeline. Google will display the activities of the day. Now click on the same trashcan icon to delete the day history. Upon clicking, a dialogue box will appear to reconfirm the action, and the job will be done.

Manage Google Location History in Smartphone

1. How to See Google Location History

Open the Google Maps App from the iPhone or Android and head to the Google Maps Timeline. Users can also use the Google Maps app to access the location history.

2. Deleting Entire Location History in Google Maps for Android and iPhone

First Users have to open the Google Maps app from the smartphone and tap the hamburger menu located on the left side of the search bar. The hamburger menu looks like three horizontal lines stacked together.

After tapping the hamburger menu, tap the gear icon(iPhone) or ‘Settings’ option in Android. Then tap the ‘personal content’ option.

Now an extensive range of features will appear on the screen. To delete all the location history Users will have to tap the ‘Delete All Location History’. Then tap the checkbox written, “I understand and want to delete” and then tap the delete option.

3. Deleting only a specific portion of the location History

Follow all the steps mentioned above but instead tapping ‘Delete all location History”, tap “Delete location history range”. Now enter the start date for the range of location data one wants to delete. Then tap “End” and Users must select the end date for the range of location data and tap end date. Then Tap the delete option located at the top-right corner of the screen. Then User must check the box written “I Understand and want to Delete” and tap the delete option.

Conclusion:

Users who are concerned about their privacy can always disable their ‘Google Location history’. Then Users have to disable their GPS location option from their smartphone.

While the above step works great but the location of the Users is still traceable through Wifi, or Network Mobile Data as well.  Users can use a reputed proxy server like Lime Proxies to bypass the IP address and Access the internet or smartphone without being tracked.

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Written By Neha Shelar