Track the exact location of friends and family

Find My Friends is a clever geolocation app which allows you to pinpoint the location of friends or family on your mobile.

You need an iCloud Apple ID to sign in but then you just select the contacts or email addresses of the people you want to track. Your target will however need Find My Friends installed on their device and has to accept the invite via the app.

There are obvious privacy implications with Find My Friends, although you can use temporary sharing for a specific time period.

Find My Friends allows you to easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Install this free app on your device running iOS 5 or later and sign in with the Apple ID you use with iCloud. Adding a friend is easy — just send a request to see their location. Once your friend accepts using the Find My Friends app on their device, you will be able to see their location. And friends can request to see your location the same way.

If you prefer, you can also choose to share your location with a group of friends for a limited time. Use Find My Friends to keep track of your traveling companions when you’re on vacation. Or to see if the kids are home from school. Or to meet up with friends for dinner.

If you’re running iOS 6, you can also set up location-based alerts — to notify you when your kids leave school or a family member arrives home safely — or have Find My Friends notify others about your location.

Find My Friends can send your current location to friends even when the application is in the background and has been optimized to avoid draining your battery.

FEATURES

• Easily locate friends and family

• Temporary sharing option

• Location-based alerts (requires iOS 6)

• Simple privacy controls

• Parental restrictions 

• Free for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch