How to Find Friends on Facebook by Location

To find your Facebook friends by location, turn on Nearby Friends. Facebook offers this service so you can see where your friends are and share your location. Don't worry, not everyone will see where you are -- your friends will see this information only if they also share their locations with you. This service is available on iPhone and Android, but is supported only in some areas, as of publication.

To turn on Nearby Friends on your iPhone or Android, open and log in to your Facebook app. Tap More (an icon with three stacked horizontal lines). Tap Nearby Friends and then the Settings symbol. Choose who you want to share your location with. You can restrict your sharing to friends, close friends or one of your friends lists.

To see who is nearby, navigate to Nearby Friends. If you have chosen to share your location with friends, you will see anyone who is nearby. If none of your friends is nearby, Facebook tells you "No friends in Nearby Friends." Below this box, Facebook offers the option to invite certain friends to Nearby Friends. To invite someone Facebook has suggested, tap the + next to her name. To search for more friends to share your location with, tap the + in the corner to see a list of suggestions. Tap the circle next to your friend's name to invite her.

To share your precise location with a friend, tap Nearby Friends and then tap the circle with the arrow to the right of your friend's name. Select how long you want to share your precise location. You can choose to share your location for an hour, one day or until you decide to stop sharing. If you include a note when you share your location, your friend will receive this when she gets the notification that you want to share your precise location.

When you turn on Nearby Friends you also enable your location history. When location history is enabled, Facebook creates a history of your precise locations, even when you leave the app. To disable this, tap More and then Nearby Friends. Tap the Settings symbol and then Location Settings. Finally, tap to turn Location History off. If you just want to delete something from your location history, tap the circle with the line through it next to the story and select Delete from the drop-down menu. You can also delete your entire location history by tapping Clear Location History at the top of the page.

If you have push notifications enabled for your Facebook app, you will also receive push notifications for Nearby Friends. To change this, tap More and select Account Settings or Settings. Tap Mobile Push and check or uncheck Nearby Friends to turn notifications on or off.