Find My Friends for Android, and the mixed-group problem

Every mixed friend group eventually hits this. Someone says “just use Find My”, three people say “I’m on Android”, and the conversation dies.

So let us be unambiguous: Apple’s Find My works only between Apple devices. An Android phone cannot join it, cannot be seen in it, and cannot see into it. This is a deliberate platform boundary, not a setting you have missed.

What Android actually has

Google Maps location sharing is the closest equivalent, and it is the practical answer for most people. It runs on Android and iPhone, most people already have it, and you can share for a set period or until you turn it off. Everyone involved needs a Google account.

Google’s Find Hub is for finding your own devices - the counterpart to Find My Device rather than to Find My Friends. Useful, different job.

WhatsApp live location works on both platforms and inside a chat you already have, for up to eight hours.

Third-party apps - Life360, iSharing and similar - are cross-platform and add features like place alerts and driving reports, generally with a subscription and an always-on model.

The real problem is not the platform, it is the setup

Here is what actually happens when a mixed group tries to sort this out for a day trip:

1. Someone proposes an app.
2. Two people install it immediately.
3. Two people say they will do it later.
4. One person does not want another account.
5. On the day, three of the six are on the map.

The platform split is the visible problem. The setup cost is the real one, and it applies just as much to an all-Android group.

This is why link-based tools keep winning for one-off meetups: a browser is a browser. A link opens identically on an iPhone and an Android phone, with no account, no install, and no platform argument.

Quick recommendations

Group	Use
All iPhone, ongoing	Apple Find My
All Android, ongoing	Google Maps location sharing
Mixed, ongoing	Google Maps location sharing
Mixed, already in one chat, short trip	WhatsApp live location
Mixed, one-off meetup, nobody wants to install anything	A link-based meetup map
Mixed, family safety with driving reports	A paid cross-platform app

Where Nearby fits

We build Nearby, so read this as interested.

The mixed-group case is the specific reason it works the way it does. The app is Android-only today - which sounds like a weakness in an article about cross-platform, and is worth stating plainly - but only the person starting the meetup needs it.

Everyone else gets a link. Your iPhone friends open it in Safari, type a name, and appear on the map as full members: they see everyone, everyone sees them, and they can chat. No App Store, no account, no Apple ID, no Google account.

So the answer to “half of us are on iPhone” is that it does not matter, as long as one person in the group is on Android.

What you do not get: ongoing sharing, a friends list, or history. It is a two-hour meetup that expires, and live positions are never stored. If you want permanent cross-platform family visibility, Google Maps sharing is free and does that properly - see Life360 alternatives for that end of the spectrum.

The full comparison covers every option side by side.

---

Nearby is free on Google Play. One Android phone starts the meetup; everyone else joins from a browser.