# Private location sharing apps, compared on what actually matters

Privacy claims are easy to make. Here is how well-known location apps differ on notifications, encryption, and location precision.




"Private" means different things depending on which part of privacy you care about: whether you're notified of access, whether the provider can see shared coordinates, or how precisely your location appears. The three apps below differ across those questions.

## Three different privacy trade-offs

WhatsApp Live Location is end-to-end encrypted - by its own documentation, neither WhatsApp nor Meta can see the coordinates you share, though the sharing itself is temporary and chat-based. Life360 offers approximate location through its paid "Ghost Mode" feature. Zenly, now discontinued, offered the most granular per-friend precision control (exact, blurred, or frozen) of any app in this comparison, active or not. None of the three notify you when your location is viewed.

| Feature | glancy | Life360 | WhatsApp (Live Location) | Zenly |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Notifies on view | Yes | No | No | No |
| Access log | Yes | No | No | not stated |
| iOS ↔ Android | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Approximate location | Yes | Partial* | No | Yes |
| Time-limited sharing | Yes | No | Yes | not stated |
| Scheduled sharing | Yes | No | No | not stated |
| Pause sharing | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Mutual connection required | Yes | Yes | not stated | Yes |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

* Partial: see sources.

## Sources

Life360: Verified 2026-09-14
- Life360: [https://support.life360.com/hc/en-us/articles/23053602225559-View-Driving-and-Location-History](https://support.life360.com/hc/en-us/articles/23053602225559-View-Driving-and-Location-History)
- Life360: [https://www.life360.com/plans-pricing](https://www.life360.com/plans-pricing)
WhatsApp (Live Location): Verified 2026-09-14
- WhatsApp (Live Location): [https://faq.whatsapp.com/480865177351335](https://faq.whatsapp.com/480865177351335)
- WhatsApp (Live Location): [https://www.whatsapp.com/privacyquestions](https://www.whatsapp.com/privacyquestions)
Zenly: Verified 2026-09-14
- Zenly: [https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/05/zenly-was-the-best-social-app-and-it-will-sadly-shut-down-on-february-3rd/](https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/05/zenly-was-the-best-social-app-and-it-will-sadly-shut-down-on-february-3rd/)
- Zenly: [https://community.zen.ly/hc/en-us/articles/360000701587-What-s-Ghost-Mode-](https://community.zen.ly/hc/en-us/articles/360000701587-What-s-Ghost-Mode-)