In the era of digitalization, the secrecy of data has become essential. More than 3 billion people use their smartphones every day, and we have no clue about the purpose for which a person operates his or her mobile. Moreover, there are multiple apps that have bugs that tend to capture your location, which is not safe. Apart from the safety concerns, there are other reasons, too, for changing or hiding your location. You must have heard about different servers for different apps. For instance, Netflix US is different from Netflix, Canada. This is due to the different serves. So for accessing an app that is not available in your country, you might have to change your location.
1. How to Turn On/Off Location Service on the iPhone
2. How to Hide the Location on your iPhone/iPad
2.1 The quickest way to turn off your location
2.2 Hiding your location from your friends on iMessage and Find my friends
3. How to Change Location on Your iPhone/iPad
3.1 Change location with iPhone settings
3.2 Fake location with third-party tools
How to Turn On/Off Location Service on the iPhone:
If you just want to go off the radar by turning off the location, it is a cakewalk on an iPhone. All you need to do is make some basic changes in the settings. For ease of understanding, we have mentioned the steps to turn off your location conveniently.
- The first thing you need to do is locate and open the settings application on your iPhone. Once you open it, scroll down and find the tab ‘Privacy.’
- Tap on ‘Privacy,’ and the first thing you get to see on the popup screen is ‘Location Services.’ Tap on that tab.
- On this screen, you see a toggle for turning off location services. If you want to turn off the location for some specific apps, you can do that, too, by choosing the particular App. This can be the best way to ensure that the apps are not following you like a spy. You can switch off the location services altogether by tapping on the location services toggle and turning it off.
How to Hide the Location on your iPhone/iPad
If you are not comfortable using the steps mentioned above to turn off your location, we have two other methods to turn off your location or hide it from your friends.
The quickest way to turn off your location
Sometimes there can be an emergency, and you might not have the time to follow the steps mentioned above. If that is the case with you, we have another solution. All you need to do is go on the home screen and swipe up. Once you do this, you get to see a lot of toggles. Now, you need to choose the airplane mode, which will turn off your GPS, Internet, Bluetooth, and practically everything that can be used for tracking you. However, this solution must only be used in emergencies. This is because you cannot keep your iPhone on airplane mode permanently as you might not be able to other essential networking services.
Hiding your location from your friends on iMessage and Find my friends
Sometimes you might want to hide your location from your friends and family. If you want to do this for whatever reason, we have got you covered. Let us guide you through the steps for doing this.
- Open the Settings App on your iPhone or the Apple device you are using.
- Now tap on your name, which should be the first tab in the list.
- After doing this, you get to see various tabs, including iCloud, iTunes, Find My, etc.
- Tap on the Find My tab and choose ‘Use this iPhone as My Location.’ Doing this will change the location of your current iPhone to the location of the device you choose.
After following the above steps, your location will be hidden. However, you need to know something about the basic settings of an iPhone. Whenever you make any changes in your iPhone, a popup window appears with four options. The options are never, ask next time, ask while using the App and always allow. You can choose any of these as per your comfort. If you are suspicious about using an app that might track your location, you can change the settings to ‘Never.’ After this, the App will never be able to use your location and track you. However, some apps might work only with your location. While using such apps, you can turn the settings to ‘Allow while using the app.’ Once you turn on this setting, the App will only use your location while you are using the App. Therefore, you are always aware when you are being tracked.
How to Change Location on Your iPhone/iPad
The solution mentioned above won’t change your location. Instead, it’ll just turn it off. Therefore, you will still not be able to use the apps or websites like Netflix Canada while sitting in the US. If you want that, you might have to change your location. Turning off your location on iPhone was relatively easy. However, changing your location can be a little complex at times. To make things easier for you, we are here with two methods of changing your location on your latest iPhone.
Change location with iPhone settings
If you want to change your location to access the apps that are not available in your country, you can do that by changing your account’s location. Although this process does not require many efforts, you need to take the following precautionary measures:
- Ensure that you have canceled all the subscriptions related to your current Apple ID before changing your location.
- The number of credits in your Apple ID must be nil. If you have any, make sure you have used them because you can’t change your location if you have any balance.
- Most importantly, back up your iPhone. You might not lose any data, but it is always better to back up your data to avoid errors.
Let us now take a look at the steps you need to follow for changing the location:
- Locate and tap on the Settings App on your iPhone. Tap on the first tab you see, i.e., your name.
- You will see various tabs on the next screen, including iCloud, iTunes, and App store, etc. Tap on the iTunes tab. The next thing you see is your Apple ID that is logged into your device.
- After you tap on the Apple ID, you will see a tab named ‘view Apple ID.’ Tap on that and enter your PIN or Unlock through face ID.
- Once you do this, a popup screen will appear. You need to find the ‘ Country/Region’ tab and change it as per your requirements.
You are now good to go. However, you need to keep one thing in mind. Changing your location through the settings will only affect the app store, iTunes, iCloud, etc. Therefore, it will only help in installing the apps that are not available in your region. Once the apps are installed, they tend to use the location through the location services section. As a result, the apps will be using your current location and not the location you changed in the settings.
Fake Location with Third-Party Tools
If the above trick does not fulfill your requirements and you want to change your location not only for downloading the apps but also while using them, you may try this trick. There are plenty of third-party apps that can help you in changing your location completely. Of all the third-party apps available in the market, our favorite is Goooch. Goooch is one of the finest apps when it comes to changing your iPhone’s location. If you feel that the location on your iPhone is being used to track you, goooch can help in resetting the location. Pokémon Go, one of the most popular AR games, is even better with the Goooch App. If you are not able to get out of your houses for any reason, you can use the App and jump to any location you want to catch the Pokémon. As of now, the software is compatible only with windows based computers. We will now be guiding you through all the steps you need to follow to use the App and change your location.
- Visit the website https://goooch.com/ and download the application on your computer first.
- Once it is downloaded, install the application by following the instructions provided during installation.
- After you are done with the entire process, all you need to do is connect your iPhone to your computer.
- Now you need to choose the mode which fits your requirements. The modes available are walking, cycling, driving. You also have the option of moving from one location to another, virtually. For doing this, you need to select two or more locations to define a route between them. Once you have defined your route, you can choose the speed at which you need to move. You can customize your speed and use a joystick for playing as well.
- After choosing the desired mode and location, your GPS location will be changed on your iPhone as well.
