Turn Location Sharing Off

How to Turn Location Sharing Off on Twitter’s Mobile Apps

by Harry Guinness 

Twitter’s mobile apps make it very easy to share your location without really meaning to. Let’s look at how to know when Twitter is sharing your location, and how to stop it.

Here’s the new Tweet screen. Right now, I’m composing a new Tweet, and Twitter has attached my location: “Fingal, Ireland”.

The reason my location is attached right now is that at some point in the past I shared my location on Twitter, and it’s now shared it for every Tweet since then. While Twitter does default to not sharing your location, if you share it once, it will switch to sharing it by default until you turn it off again.

To turn off location sharing, if it’s on, tap the blue location icon, and then tap Remove.

This will turn the icon white, and you can see my location is no longer attached to the Tweet. As long as I don’t turn it on again by mistake, it will stay that way.

For a more permanent solution, we have to look to system permissions. We’ve got full guides on managing app permission on iOS and on Android, but I’ll cover the basics of the process here.

Block Location Access on an iPhone or iPad

If you’re using iOS, open the Settings app and scroll down until you get to Twitter. There are two Twitter entires; you want he one listed with all your other apps. The first Twitter option you encounter, next to Facebook Flickr, and Vimeo, isn’t the one you want.

Change the Location from “While Using the App” to “Never”.

Now Twitter won’t be able to share your location unless you give it permission again.

Block Location Access on Android

On Android, open your phone’s Settings and, under Apps, select Twitter from the list.

Tap Permissions and turn the Location switch to “Off”.

Now Twitter won’t be able to use your location.