iOS 27 is packed with new features, including several for the Find My app. One upgrade to Find My—custom sharing durations—grants a feature request I’ve had for years.
Apple’s Find My app is a great way to share your location with friends or family members on either permanent or a temporary basis.
But the “temporary” option just got a very welcome upgrade in iOS 27.
That’s because you can now set up location sharing in Find My for a custom duration. Per Apple:
users [now] have more control over how they share their location with friends and family using Find My, with new options to share for a custom duration — either for a number of minutes, hours, or days — or even set a date and time for when sharing will stop. This makes it easy for users to share their location while attending an event, or for a long weekend getaway with friends and family.
Until iOS 27, you could only choose from a very limited set of “temporary” options for sharing: for one hour, or until end of day. The only other option was “indefinitely.”
The main time I find myself adding new people to share my location with, I’m either traveling or they’re visiting me. On these occasions, the “one hour” and “until end of day” options never cut it.
So of course, I have to choose “indefinitely.” Then there’s the decision after the trip ends of either continuing to let location sharing happen, or ending sharing immediately (if I remember to). And the latter option has always felt a little awkward to me. I’d much rather schedule the sharing duration upfront.
And now with iOS 27 I can. When sharing location with someone, a new ‘Custom’ duration option allows choosing an end date and time, and/or manually setting a given number of days, hours, and minutes for sharing to continue.
It’s a great change, long overdue, and works perfectly for the scenarios Apple outlined.
Have you ever wished for custom sharing durations in Find My? Let us know in the comments.
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Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.
