You may currently be in a situation where you’re wondering:
“If someone blocked me, can I still see their location?”
The short answer: Yes. Blocking and location share features work separately. The former blocks calls and messages, while the latter may be set to stop location sharing.
It’s quite common for smartphone users to mix up the ‘Block’ and ‘Location Share’ functions on their devices.
While modern tech allows us to share our lives with everyone at all hours of the day, sometimes we just want a little privacy.
Additionally, we may sometimes want to distance ourselves from specific people for a variety of personal reasons.
For instance, you may not want to share your personal information (such as your current location) with a particular acquaintance from the past.
In this article, you’ll learn the specific functions of both these features and how they dictate user experience.
To that end, we’ll analyze the issue from different angles, with the problem being centered around the ‘Block’ and ‘Location share’ features of your phone.
Most people mistake these two functions as being one and the same, so let’s go over the differences to better understand how our devices work!
Can You Still See Someone’s Location If They Blocked You On iPhone?
‘Blocking’ someone is distinctly different from the iPhone’s ‘Find My Friend’ feature/app. As you’ll see throughout this article, this app forms the central theme of the topic.
First, let’s hypothetically consider that someone has blocked you. As a result, they will no longer receive your calls or messages.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will no longer be able to see their location (if you could see it before that is- prior to them blocking you).
Rather than being blocked, you’ll likely become unable to see someone’s location if they’ve changed the location share settings on the ‘Find My Friends‘ app to specifically keep you from learning their current coordinates.
Therefore, what really prevents you from learning a friend’s location is the ‘Find My Friends’ app on their iPhone!
Moreover, if the person in question has only blocked you, you’ll still likely get notifications in regards to their location.
These won’t be messages from the person, but rather an automatic feature from the app when their location changes.
As a result, you’re really only going to be in the dark if someone specifically changes their settings in the ‘Find My Friends’ app on their iPhone.
If I Block Someone On An iPhone, Can I Still See Their Location?
Yes, you can.
Whether you can or cannot see someone’s location depends on whether the person concerned has blocked their ‘Location share’ feature with you. It has nothing to do with whether you have blocked them!
Therefore, blocking a person will have zero bearing on the access you have to their location information.
And while you won’t get emails and messages when blocking a person, the individual will still be able to know your location (unless you’ve specifically removed that permission).
This is all because separate applications are involved!
To disable your location sharing with a particular person, you need to disconnect with the person on the ‘Find My Friends’ app. We’ll dive a little deeper into this app in the following section.
The ‘Find My Friends’ App
The Find My Friends app allows users to connect with and locate their friends and family through various Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
The initial release date of the app was more than a decade ago on 12 October 2011. Since then, it’s come a long way.
In 2019, the separate features of ‘Find My Friends’ and ‘Find My iPhone’ were combined into a single integrated app- ‘Find My’. This became a more evolved version of the previous ‘Find My Friends’ app.
The ‘Find My’ app is an asset tracking app that helps you establish a contact’s current location.
It aids in tracking the location of iOS, macOS, iPadOS, AirTags, AirPods, and several other third-party accessories. The system works through a connected iCloud account.
‘Find My’ is the heart of the location sharing feature between owners of Apple devices.
While the app can be really handy for friends, it may affect your personal life negatively- particularly if you prefer privacy from prying eyes.
To disable location sharing, you simply need to remove a person from the Find My app.
In the same vein, if a person wishes to block you from knowing/accessing their location, they’ll need to do so through the Find My app. Merely blocking won’t suffice.
Following that, the person with whom you do not wish to share your location will no longer be able to see your whereabouts (and vice versa).
Wrapping Up
In this article, we’ve shown you the difference between someone blocking your calls and texts and someone blocking you from knowing their location.
We’ve taken a look at the issue from multiple perspectives.
Ultimately, blocking a person has nothing to do with sharing your location with them. Instead, the ‘Find My Friends’ (or Find My) app controls the situation here!
Blocking isn’t enough to ensure location privacy.
For instance, if someone has blocked you, they’ll no longer receive any of your calls, emails, and messages.
However, you’d still be able to discover the person’s location (the one that has blocked you) if the two of you are connected on the ‘Find My’ app.
The Find My app works independently of the block feature on iPhones. Therefore, a person has to remove the other from their ‘Find My Friends’ app to hide his location.
This is the only way to truly prevent a person from being able to see your whereabouts.
As long as they are listed in the ‘Find My Friends’ app, a mere ‘Block’ isn’t going to stop them from seeing approximately where you are!
Do you know how to stay safe on your smartphone? Keep yourself protected with our Comprehensive A-Z Of Smartphone Security right HERE!