How to Grant or Deny an iOS App Access to Your Location

Many apps you install will ask for permission to access your location – if the app looks useful, you’ll usually allow it. But we tend to forget this after the fact, and over time you’ll see a dozen different apps asking for location information and draining your battery. This usage is a problem for privacy reasons and practical concerns about battery life. Or sometimes you are denied app location access on first launch, but you may need to enable it later but not sure how to do this.

Some apps like Zomato only use your location when you open the app. Other apps, such as Google Maps, use your location even in the background. There may be legitimate reasons for this. In the case of Google Maps, it provides directions even when the app isn’t open. But that’s not true for all apps that use your location.

The easy solution is to turn off GPS entirely – but that means even important apps you rely on can’t check your location. If your battery life is getting worse, or you just don’t feel comfortable with certain apps sharing your location data, you can turn off location access for just those apps.

Here’s how to enable or disable location access for individual apps on your iPhone or iPad.

1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.

2. Now scroll down to see the list of apps seeking location access.

3. Next to each application you will see the text no way, When usingor always. Apps that have never been written next to their name will not use your location data. While in use means the app only accesses location data while the app is on screen. Always means the app can access location data even when it’s not running.

4. Tap any app with always appears next to its name.

5. Click now When using the application. This will ensure that apps don’t use your location in the background. Some apps don’t allow this option, in that case if you think the app shouldn’t always have access to your location, change the setting to no way.

6. Scroll to the bottom and click System services.

7. Now you can see the system services using your location in the background. Find my iPhone is a useful anti-theft feature, so you should not deny its location access. You can turn off other features according to your requirements.

Do you like having apps use your location in the background? Can denying location access extend iPhone or iPad battery life? Let us know in the comments.

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