How To Get Around Location Sharing

As a GPS and location tracking app, Life360 is not designed to stay in one place. It tracks your every move and provides accurate data on where, when, and how fast you're moving. But there are times when you just want to go off-grid and hide your whereabouts from the rest of the circle.

How to Keep Your Location on Life360 in One Place

This is easier said than done because the app is designed to follow you around and it's hard to trick. However, there are certain hacks that can be of help. Here are a few tips to work around the app's software and keep it in one location.

Where's Your Phone?

Leaving your phone in one place, while you're roaming the streets freely is a logical thing to do. But then you deprive yourself of the device when there's is no need to. Life360 is a piece of software like any other and there are a few simple tweaks to stop it from breathing down your neck at all times.

Wi-Fi and Cellular Data off

Shutting off your internet connection completely disables Life360 and the app usually just shows your last location. The obvious downside of this method is that all other apps lose connection, which limits notifications, messaging apps, and other services. Aside from having no internet connection, others in your group will quickly see that's something is amiss. Plus, it might not be enough to spoof your whereabouts.

Fortunately, iPhone users can turn the cellular data off from the settings for the Life360 application while Android users will have to use other methods.

To turn the Life360 cellular data off, iPhone users can go to the Settings on their phone and tap on 'Cellular.' Toggle the switch off for Life360 and as long as wifi isn't available, Life360 won't be able to report your real location.

Location Spoofing, "Burner" Phone, and More

To spoof your location, you need a VPN like ExpressVPN or a fake location app. For VPN integration, we recommend reading our guide on how to use a VPN with your phone. For fake location apps, we won't recommend any particular one because there are plenty of good options on PlayStore and App Store. But keep in mind, most of these apps are paid, the set-up can be tricky, and they affect all other apps on your phone.

Getting a "burner" phone is probably the oldest trick in the book. It means you have two phones and the "burner" device stays put and has the Life360 installed on it. There's no need to tamper with any of the settings you just leave one phone and take the other one with you.

The trick here is to think a bit outside the box. For example, if you have an iPad or iPod touch you can use that device as a "burner" or take them with you and make your smartphone the dummy.

Finally, the surest way to stay in one place is to uninstall the app. Afterward, the map shows your last location. There's no tracking, but you'll probably need to reinstall it not to raise suspicion.

Background App Refresh

This feature is designed to allow apps to run in the background and update information. Life360 uses your smartphone's GPS and motion tracking. For that reason, turning off the internet without disabling Background App Refresh might not keep you in one place.

This feature, for example, is accessible via the Settings app on an iPhone and Android. Tap the Settings app, navigate down to Life360, and enter the menu. Hit the button next to Background App Refresh to toggle it off. This way, you're 100% certain that the location won't update when Wi-Fi is off.

Android users will need to go to their Settings, tap on 'Apps,' and toggle the 'Allow Background Data Usage' off after tapping on 'Life360.'

Android also offers a battery-saving feature for many models. Tap on 'Device Care' and turn the Life360 Background app refresh off under the Battery settings.

Turn off Location and Motion

Disabling the motion and location tracking should be enough to keep you in one place. It means you don't need to turn off Wi-Fi and cellular for the trick to work. However, it's still advisable to toggle off Background App Refresh.

To put things into perspective, this gives you a chance to grab a long lunch or run an errand without notifying everybody else in your circle. The app will still show the last recorded location and stay in that place until the information is updated.

What's more, you can set the Location to "Ask Next Time" and the app will introduce a pop-up before it starts tracking you. Mind you, this has been tested on an iPhone and the feature's name might be different on Android.

Battery Saving Mode

Life360 uses a lot of battery resources to monitor and report on your location and motion stats. In fact, most of its functions shut off when your battery is below 20%. The same happens when you intentionally trigger the battery-saving mode. But there is a catch.

You'll need to disable Background App Refresh to ensure the location isn't being tracked. It's not clear whether the app can override the battery saving mode when you trigger it at 50% or 70% full battery.

Both Android and iPhone users have low-power mode options. Android users can choose between, High Performance, Optimized, Medium, and Maximum power saving options.

Maximum Power Saving only allows the processes in your phone to run that are absolutely necessary so this is probably the one you want to keep Life360 from running in the background.

Drive Detection

Launch the app, select Settings, and tap the Drive Detection option; it should be just above the FAQs. Now, you only need to tap on the button in the next window to toggle the feature off.

Rather than keeping you in one place, this prevents the app from tracking your movement, speed, as well as location. This might work great if you want to go for a short drive, but other members of your circle will know you've disabled Drive Detection.

There's also an option to disable Location Sharing, just tap on it within the Settings Menu and toggle off the button. If you belong to a few different circles, you need to repeat this for each one. Again, the map shows your last location and there's a "Location Sharing Paused" message.

Truth be told, this isn't an ideal solution because it might raise suspicion with the circle administrator and other members. Therefore, you might need to resort to more creative methods.

Frequently Asked Questions

If I turn my location off, will it alert others?

Yes, other people in your circle will know if you have wifi turned off (which isn't a big deal with unlimited data plans there's no need for wifi all the time) and if you've turned your location off.

Is it easy to trick Life360?

If you're a parent of a teenager or a new driver, it doesn't get much better than Life360. Even the free option gives you their location, speed, and lets you set two places for alerts (child has arrived at school for example). But, there are hundreds of TikTok videos showing teens how to bypass Life360's watchful eye. For those who aren't tech-savvy, tricking the app may seem complicated, but for anyone who uses technology regularly, it's pretty straightforward and simple.

Will Life360 work if the phone is off?

No, it will only show your last location and your last trip. But, it will also show that your phone is off. Super fun fact about Life360; it will show your battery percentage too so faking a dead battery may not work.

Can I use Life360 without cellular data?

You will need a phone number to sign into Life360 but you do not need cellular data to run the application. If you've chosen to use the burner phone option we've listed in this article, all you need is a Wi-Fi connection and the ability to sign in to your Life360 account on said burner phone.

Play Hide and Seek

Keeping Life360 in one place is difficult but not impossible and you should know that it pretty much disables all emergency services within the app. In other words, you should use these tricks sparingly.

Which of the tips did you find most useful? Why would you like to keep your location in one place? Share your experiences with the rest of the TechJunkie community.