How to track your partner’s location like Taylor Swift in ‘Black Dog’

Use your iPhone to keep tabs on ’em. For safety reasons, of course.

Keep track of your partner’s location like Taylor Swift in “Black Dog.”
Credit: Stacey Zhu; Luis Alvarez / DigitalVision / Mensent Photography / Moment / e_rasmus / iStock / Getty

Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poet’s Department, her 11th studio album, just dropped — and “Black Dog” is getting people talking about location tracking.

In the melancholic song, Swift revealed that her ex forgot to revoke her access for tracking his location, allowing her to see him walking into a bar called Black Dog.

With all of this hoopla about location tracking, you may be wondering how to do it yourself.

How to use your iPhone to track your partner’s locationFirst off, it’s important to note that you cannot track anyone’s location without their permission. As such, before you can go about tracking anyone’s location, the person will receive a prompt to allow you to access their whereabouts.

Here’s a quick how-to on how to keep tabs on your loved ones — for safety, of course.

1. Tap on the “Messages” app.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

2. Tap on the friend or loved one you’d like to track.3. Tap on the “+” button.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

4. Hit “Location.”

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

5. You may get an “Allow ‘Messages’ to use your location” prompt. Hit “Allow While Using App.”

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

6. Tap on the blue arrow to send the location request.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

If your location request is accepted, you’ll get a notification and see a small map that lets you see your loved one’s current whereabouts.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

You can click on it to grab directions or share it with someone else.

Kimberly Gedeon is a tech explorer who enjoys doing deep dives into the most popular gadgets, from the latest iPhones to the most immersive VR headsets. She’s drawn to strange, avant-garde, bizarre tech, whether it’s a 3D laptop, a gaming rig that can transform into a briefcase, or smart glasses that can capture video. Her journalism career kicked off about a decade ago at MadameNoire where she covered tech and business before landing as a tech editor at Laptop Mag in 2020.

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