When you are driving to a friend’s house for dinner, they will almost always send a text asking, “When will you be here?” Picking up your phone to type out a reply while you are actively driving is incredibly dangerous. Instead of doing the math in your head and texting them a rough guess, you can let Apple Maps handle the communication for you. The “Share ETA” feature will silently text them your exact, GPS-calculated arrival time and automatically send them an update if you hit heavy traffic.
How to Share Your ETA
You can only activate this feature after you have officially started turn-by-turn navigation.
- Open the Apple Maps app on your iPhone.
- Enter your destination and tap the green GO button to start the voice navigation.
- Look at the dark gray summary panel at the very bottom of the screen (the one that shows your arrival time, travel time, and miles remaining).
- Tap anywhere on that gray panel to expand the route menu.
- Tap the button labeled Share ETA (it usually has an icon of a person’s head).
Selecting Your Contact
A menu will slide up displaying your most frequent contacts.
- Tap the name of the person you are driving to meet. (If they are not in the quick list, tap “Contacts” at the bottom to search your entire phonebook).
- A blue ring will appear around their photo, and the screen will briefly say “Sharing with [Name].”
What Your Friend Sees
Apple Maps works its magic entirely in the background.
- If your friend owns an iPhone: They will receive a rich notification on their lock screen saying you have shared your ETA. If they open the Maps app, they can actually see your little car moving along the route in real time.
- If your friend owns an Android phone: Apple Maps will seamlessly fall back to standard text messaging. It will automatically send them a basic SMS text saying, “I’m arriving at [Destination] at [Time].” If you get stuck in a major traffic jam that delays you by more than a few minutes, Apple Maps will automatically send them a second text message with a revised arrival time.
When you finally pull into their driveway, the sharing stops automatically. You never have to touch your phone.