Comparison · checked September 2026

MyLoco vs Apple Find My

Both can show someone where you are for a while. Find My does it between Apple Accounts, on Apple devices, and offers to keep doing it indefinitely. MyLoco does it for anyone with a browser, for an hour, with no account on either side.

Find My is built into every iPhone, and on privacy it is the closest thing to MyLoco on this list. Apple says that on iOS 17 or later your shared location is not accessible to Apple, that it keeps location for at most 24 hours to provide the service, and that it does not sell personal data. There are no ads. If everyone you share with has an iPhone, Find My is a very good answer, and this page doesn’t pretend otherwise.

So why does MyLoco exist? Because “everyone has an iPhone” is the catch. Find My needs an Apple Account and an Apple device on both sides, so the friend on Android, the marketplace buyer, the client and the plumber are all outside it. And one of its three options is “indefinitely,” which is the opposite of temporary. MyLoco is only the temporary part, for anyone: a link that opens in any browser, ends by itself, and leaves nothing behind.

Side by side

Find My column from Apple’s own support pages and privacy documents as of September 2026; details and dates under “How we checked.”

Why “temporary” is the whole difference

Find My has a one-hour option. The difference is who can use it, and what the other options are.

• Anyone can watch. A MyLoco link opens in any browser on any phone or laptop. A Find My share needs the other person to have an iPhone or iPad, signed in to an Apple Account, and to accept your sharing. The people you most need a temporary share for are often exactly the people outside your Apple circle.
• There is no “indefinitely.” Find My offers it next to the one-hour option, and it is the one that never asks you again. Every MyLoco share is 15, 30 or 60 minutes, or until you stop, with no extend button. Ending is what happens if you do nothing.
• You share a position, not an account. Find My sharing is tied to your Apple Account and theirs, and shows up in Find My, Maps and Contacts. MyLoco shows the name you typed and where you are right now, to whoever holds the link, and nothing connects it to anything else about you.
• Nothing is kept, and the trade-off is honest. Apple keeps a shared location for up to 24 hours to provide the service and, on iOS 17 or later, cannot read it. MyLoco’s server does see positions while a share is active — that is how a browser link can work without an app on the other end — and erases them the moment the share ends, deleting the share record within a day.
• Groups work as one map. Find My is one friend at a time. MyLoco’s group share puts everyone with the app on one live map, each on their own timer, with a watch link for people without it.

The long version of this argument is in Temporary location sharing, explained.

Where Find My is ahead

It is already on the phone, with nothing to install and no link to send: sharing shows up in Find My, Maps and the other person’s Contacts. On iOS 17 or later the location is not accessible to Apple, which MyLoco cannot match while it serves a browser link. Friends can set alerts for when you arrive or leave. Check In in Messages tells someone you got home and shares your details only if you don’t, which is a genuinely good temporary idea. It works across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. And it is on iPhone today, where MyLoco is still in review. For a household of iPhones, Find My is the better choice, and we would rather say so than pretend.

On iPhone

Find My is already on your iPhone. MyLoco’s iPhone version is with Apple for review. On Android, MyLoco is available now — and an Android friend can already watch a MyLoco share from an iPhone, in Safari. If you’re on an iPhone and this page made sense to you, leave an email and we’ll send exactly one message the day it lands.

Sending a driver or a technician to a customer?

Find My is a personal feature of Apple devices. A business can’t create a Find My share per delivery from its backend, and a customer shouldn’t need an iPhone, or a driver’s Apple Account, to see a van approach. MyLoco for Business gives you an API that creates a temporary live tracking link with your name on the page, feeds it from the driver’s phone, tells you by webhook when it ends, and deletes the position afterwards.

POST /v1/shares  →  tracking URL  →  live location for the customer
                 →  webhook when it ends  →  position deleted

Retention is off unless you turn it on (opt-in, up to 90 days, and it belongs to your business — the customer’s page says so). Plans start at $29/month after a free trial; the endpoints are on the API page and the product on MyLoco for Business.

Which one for what

• A household of iPhones that shares all the time: Find My. Built in, private, with arrive-and-leave alerts.
• Anyone on Android, or anyone without an Apple Account: MyLoco. Find My can’t reach them at all.
• Someone you don’t want in your contacts — a buyer, a date, a client, a contractor: MyLoco. A position for an hour, not a place in your Apple life.
• “Tell me when you get home” between two iPhones: Apple’s Check In. Between anything else: a MyLoco share until you arrive.
• A group heading to one place: MyLoco, for the shared map and the watch link.
• A business sending people to customers: MyLoco for Business. Find My doesn’t do that.

How we checked

Apple facts come from Apple’s own pages as of September 2026: the Apple Support article “Share your location with iPhone” (published 19 December 2025), Apple’s “Find My & Privacy” page, the Apple Privacy Policy (updated 30 July 2025), and the Personal Safety User Guide article “Use Check In for Messages on iPhone.” MyLoco facts describe the app as shipped. If something here is out of date, write to hello@myloco.app and we will fix it. Apple, Find My, iPhone and iMessage are trademarks of Apple Inc.; MyLoco is not affiliated with Apple.

Fair questions