Google is reportedly working on streamlining location sharing on Android

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Google working on streamlining location sharing on Android
Android users who utilize location sharing across multiple Google apps may soon have a more centralized way to manage those settings. Google is reportedly developing a new hub titled "Google Location Sharing," which appears designed to simplify how you control where and with whom your location data is shared.

Currently, Google allows location sharing through various services, including Google Maps for sharing real-time location with contacts and Google Find My Device (\for locating misplaced devices. Managing these different location-sharing instances can become cumbersome, requiring users to adjust settings within each app individually. This can also, of course, be a time-consuming task in the event that you want to change this setting across all the apps you use.

However, as spotted by Tipster and Developer AssembleDebug (via PiunikaWeb), recent updates to Google Play Services suggest this hub is under development. The end goal is apparently to consolidating access to all active location sharing services within your Google account and replace the less user-friendly web-based page that currently offers a similar overview. This page is currently available by going to Settings > Location > Location Services > Google Location Sharing.

Location Services hub currently in development vs. current UI (last photo)
Source: PiunikaWeb

While not yet functional, the anticipated apps supported by the "Google Location Sharing" hub will be Google Maps, Google Find My Device, Personal Safety, Variations of "com.google.android.apps.gmm" (Maps-related), and potentially Family Link for parental controls.

It's currently unknown when Google intends to officially launch this centralized location-sharing management hub for Android users, or if this will even make it to a public build. However, as this is already in a beta version of Google Play Services (version 24.15.14), it is unlikely that progress that has gone this far will be abandoned. The question now is when we can expect this, which I'm inclined to think might be around Android 15's public release later this year.

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