How to Turn On Location Services Without Feeling Like You’re Being Followed

You’ve probably seen the prompt a thousand times. You open a new app—maybe a weather tracker or a food delivery service—and a little box pops up asking for your coordinates. It feels invasive. Most of us just hit "allow" because we want our tacos delivered to the right door, but there is actually a lot of nuance to how you turn on location services and, more importantly, how you manage them so your battery doesn't die by noon.

Honestly, the tech has changed. A lot. Back in the day, it was basically an all-or-nothing toggle. Now? It’s a surgical operation.

If you’re sitting there with a brand-new iPhone or a high-end Android, you aren't just giving away your latitude and longitude. You are dealing with a complex web of GPS, Wi-Fi sniffing, Bluetooth beacons, and even barometric pressure sensors that know exactly what floor of the mall you’re currently standing on. It’s cool. It’s also slightly terrifying if you don’t know how to shut it off.

The Physical Act: How to Actually Turn On Location Services

Let’s get the basics out of the way. If you’re on an iPhone, you’re heading into Settings, scrolling down to Privacy & Security, and tapping Location Services. It’s a simple toggle at the top. But here’s the kicker: just flipping that switch is the beginning, not the end. Underneath that toggle is a list of every single app you’ve ever downloaded, and most of them are probably "Always" or "While Using" your data.

Android is a bit different. Because of the fragmentation between Samsung’s One UI, Google’s Pixel UI, and others, the path varies slightly. Generally, you swipe down the notification shade and long-press the Location icon. Or go to Settings > Location. Google gives you a bit more granularity with "Google Location Accuracy," which uses Google's massive database of Wi-Fi networks to pin you down faster than GPS satellites alone ever could.

GPS is slow. It takes time to "lock" onto a satellite. By using Wi-Fi signals and cell towers, your phone can figure out where you are in about two seconds. That’s why your blue dot jumps around when you first open Maps.

Why Your Battery Hates You

You've noticed it. Your phone gets warm. The percentage drops.

When you turn on location services for everything, your phone is constantly "polling." This means it’s waking up the processor to ask the GPS chip, "Hey, where are we now?" If you have twenty apps doing this every few minutes, your battery doesn't stand a chance.

Apple and Google have tried to fix this. They use something called "geofencing." Instead of the app constantly checking your location, the phone’s OS waits until you cross a specific virtual boundary. Only then does it wake up the app and say, "Hey, they’re at the grocery store now, show them their shopping list." It saves a ton of juice. But if you have "Precise Location" turned on for every random game or calculator app, you’re just throwing away battery life for no reason.

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Precise vs. Approximate: The Middle Ground

One of the best updates in recent years—on both iOS and Android—is the ability to give an app your "approximate" location.

Think about a weather app. Does The Weather Channel need to know your exact house number? No. It just needs to know you’re in North Chicago or Downtown Austin. When you turn on location services for these kinds of apps, look for the "Precise" toggle. Turn it off. Your phone will then provide a circular area of about 10 square miles. It’s enough for a forecast but not enough for a stranger to find your front door.

On the flip side, if you're using Uber or Google Maps for navigation, you need precise location. Otherwise, your driver is going to be circling the block three streets over while you're standing in the rain.

The "System Services" Rabbit Hole

This is where things get weird. On an iPhone, if you go to the bottom of the Location Services menu, there’s a tab called "System Services." This is where Apple hides the stuff it uses for its own features.

"Significant Locations" is the one that creeps people out. Your phone keeps an encrypted log of the places you visit most often. It uses this to tell you how long the commute to work will be or to suggest photos from "Home." Apple says this is end-to-end encrypted and they can't see it. Still, many people see that list of every coffee shop they’ve visited in the last month and immediately want to nuking the whole setting.

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Then there’s "Compass Calibration" and "Setting Time Zone." You probably want those on. If you turn off time zone location services and fly to a different coast, your phone might stay on the wrong time. It’s a mess.

Privacy Myths and Realities

A lot of people think that if they turn on location services, Facebook is literally watching them walk through the park in real-time. That’s not quite how it works. Data is usually harvested in "packets." It’s less about a live feed and more about building a profile of who you are. If you spend three hours a week at a gym, you’re a "fitness enthusiast." If you’re at a car dealership, you’re "in the market for a vehicle."

That data is worth a lot of money.

But there are also safety benefits. Emergency SOS features use these services to tell 911 dispatchers exactly where you are even if you can’t speak. In 2026, the E911 standards are so tight that your phone can often relay your location within a few meters inside a building. That’s a reason to keep the master toggle on, even if you’re picky about individual apps.

The Android "Scanner" Problem

Android has a setting called "Wi-Fi Scanning" and "Bluetooth Scanning." Even if you turn off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth in the quick settings, the phone might still be using those radios to find your location.

To truly stop it, you have to dig into the "Location Services" menu and toggle off these scanning options. It’s a bit sneaky. Google argues it’s for accuracy, and they aren't wrong, but it’s another layer of the "always-on" culture that drains your privacy and your battery.

Real-World Action Steps

If you want to handle this like a pro, don't just flip a switch and walk away.

1. Audit your list. Go through every app. If it’s a game, set it to "Never." If it’s a delivery app, set it to "While Using."
2. Use the Blue Bar. On iPhone, if an app is actively using your location in the background, the time in the top left corner will turn blue. Tap it. It’ll take you right to the culprit.
3. Check the "System Services" on iOS. Turn off "Product Improvement" and "iPhone Analytics." You’re just sending data to Apple for free; it doesn't help you find your way home.
4. Android users: Check your Google Account. Go to "Location History" in your Google account settings. This is separate from the device setting. It’s a cloud-based timeline of everywhere you’ve been. You can set this to auto-delete every 3 months.
5. Review permissions monthly. Apps update. Sometimes their privacy policies change. A quick five-minute scan of your location settings once a month keeps things tight.

The goal isn't to live off the grid. It’s to make sure that when you turn on location services, it’s working for you, not for some advertiser trying to sell you shoes because you walked past a Foot Locker.

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Start by going to your settings right now. Look for any app that has "Always" access. If it isn't a map app or a "Find My Device" tracker, change it to "While Using." You’ll see an immediate bump in battery life, and your phone will feel a whole lot less like a tracking device. Keep the control in your hands and don't let the defaults dictate your privacy.