How can I display current iPhone GPS coordinates?

How can I display current iPhone GPS coordinates?

You can use your iPhone's built in GPS to display the latitude and longitude coordinates of your current location. Follow these steps to find your location coordinates in degrees, minutes and seconds:

  1. Make sure that Location Services is ON. Navigate to Settings -> Location Services -> ON
  2. In the list of apps under Location Services, make sure Compass is ON
  3. Press the Home button to exit Settings
  4. Open the Compass app

Your current GPS coordinates are displayed at the bottom of the screen.

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Comments

Anonymous replied on

this is a nice idea, but it is not correct. Compass does not give GPS coordinates in the true sense; you get detailed long and lat, but those are not the same.

Anonymous replied on

what do you mean by true sense? Compass displays in degrees, minutes and seconds. perfectly valid. i text my daughter my coordinates and she enters into google maps exactly as compass display them and she then tracks to those coordinates for her ride home when i do pick up at a large event for instance. works perfectly for us. if your map does not like degress minutes and seconds for coordinates, its easy enough to convert to decimal for your maps.. google maps on iphone and web accepts both units and displays perfectly.

shoukathali kun... replied on

values given by iphone compass is in degrees, minutes and seconds. I found it difficult to type as it is in the iphone google map since degrees sign isn't available in symbols. So, I entered the coordinates with leaving space between degrees, minutes and second in iphone google map search bar like shown below..

example: 25 20 22, 55 23 34

it works fine for me.

mike replied on

The degree symbol is available if you long press the zero number key. FYI.

But yes it would be nice to have a choice of number formats as well as a copy paste / share option.

1835 replied on

you can copy (touch and hold on the coordinates) and paste…
regards

Anonymous replied on

Lat Long in degrees minutes seconds is inaccurate and basically useless in the modern world. Most agencies who deal with coordinates use UTMs or at least decimal degrees- both of which are far more accurate. I am surprised that the newer iPhones contain such an antiquated system!

Anonymous replied on

For your information, position of any location is precisely given by lat and long in deg min and seconds not in decimal systems. As a marine research expert I do carry out experiments in oceans and never go with decimals of degree. Instead we go upto 3 decimals of seconds. All naval vessels still use degrees, minutes and seconds to find their accurate position as well..

Pete replied on

Federal and state agencies use decimal degrees because in current world of GIS this is the format accepted by most GIS programs. Plus when entering GPS data into spreadsheets its a whole lot more convenient to enter as decimal degrees than hours.minutes. seconds

Anonymous replied on

LOL

Sounds like somebody has APPLE envy.

We Geocache all over the world and have used $800.00 GPS devices not as good as my iPhone!

I tell new Geocachers not to bother.

Anonymous replied on

You can easily use an appropriate app. I prefer using PickMeUp

https://itunes.apple.com/il/app/pickmeup-app/id689760122?mt=8

Anonymous replied on

For those that are simply wanting to share their location, or for some else to share their location with them on an iPhone (kids needing picked up):

The person sharing has to:

1/ Open Maps
2/ Touch the 'location' arrow at the bottom left of the screen, so that it turns a solid blue
3/ Touch the 'Share' icon
4/ Choose their preferred Share method (Message, Mail, Twitter, Facebook)

Hope this is helpful. :)

Anonymous replied on

This doesn't work in China, though, because maps doesn't work there. The plain DMS coords works anywhere.

Anonymous replied on

For those that are simply wanting to share their location, or for some else to share their location with them on an iPhone (kids needing picked up):

The person sharing has to:

1/ Open Maps
2/ Touch the 'location' arrow at the bottom left of the screen, so that it turns a solid blue
3/ Touch the 'Share' icon
4/ Choose their preferred Share method (Message, Mail, Twitter, Facebook)

Hope this is helpful. :)

Anonymous replied on

You need to enter the N/S/E/W to be sure this is accurate.
E.g this works fine in google maps: 16 30 55 N, 1 01 31 W

Sid replied on

The coordinates display below the compass on the on my wife's iphone 5 but will not display on my iPhone 6

Alicia replied on

I just tried this with my iPhone 6 and it worked fine, maybe they worked it out?

am using this app to write a gps course to teach geocaching with and STEM

Pat replied on

How accurate is it? 1foot? 10 feet? 100 feet?

Angie replied on

The iarrow app says the gps coordinates are accurate +/- 30m

Jim P replied on

I have iPhone 6 Plus and have the coordinates on the bottom of my compass.

Anonymous replied on

What does it mean when there is a compass in when i log in to my icloud to locate my iphone?

Tim replied on

iArrow is another great app for work with GPS coordinates. It works offline and helps to save your waypoints to navigate precisely to them later, displays detailed GPS info and does a lot lot more. A simple and very effective app. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iarrow/id626748307?mt=8

Rey replied on

Thanks that's cool. Do you know what coordinate system it's using?

Anonymous replied on

In Compass, long pressing the latitude/longitude will display an option to copy it.

Jim P replied on

Thanks!!!!

Jerry replied on

How come the coordinates are NOT UPDATED on my iPhone 6s compass page as I move about?

PS: I don't have a "Location Services" on this phone.

ERNST SIROS replied on

I had to go to Settings->Privacy->Location Settings. Then reset Compass from "never" to "while using this app".