I’m not an iOS expert, but on Android there are two types of geolocation that apps use. The “coarse location” can geolocate you approximately within a radius of 3 km2 and the “fine location” which can determine your precise position within a few meters (50 meters and less). The difference lies in the resources that the application can use, the access of the “fine location” being necessarily more intrusive than for the “coarse location”.

On Android 12, but also iOS 16, when an app requests access to your location, you can now grant it, but restrict that permission to your approximate location.

How to revoke access to your precise location on your Android smartphone

On Android, you can go through the famous Privacy Dashboard to manage the permissions granted to your apps:

  1. Go to Settings and then to Location.
  2. Select the application of your choice and press it.
  3. Turn off the switch labeled Use exact location.
Remove access position precise Android app
Here’s how to revoke access to your exact location on Android 12 / © NextPit Image source: NextPit

How to revoke access to your exact location on your iPhone

On iOS, the process is much the same. As with Android’s Privacy Dashboard, you can see which apps are accessing your location via the Location Service menu in the Privacy menu.

  1. Go to Settings and scroll down to see a list of your apps.
  2. Select the app of your choice and tap it.
  3. Tap on Location.
  4. Turn off the Exact Position switch.
Remove access position precise Android app
Here’s how to revoke access to your exact location on iOS 15 / © NextPit Image source: NextPit

That’s it for this quick tutorial on how to revoke an app’s access to your exact location. Did this tip help you? Apart from navigation apps like Google Maps or Maps, what kind of apps do you let access your precise location?