Changing the location on your iPhone or Android device involves tricking your phone into telling apps that you’re located somewhere you’re not. In most cases, when you spoof your GPS location, every location-based app on your phone will be fooled.

This might seem like a weird thing to do, since most of us use GPS for tasks that need our real location, like when finding directions and weather updates. However, there are legitimate reasons to change your phone’s location to a fake one.

Unfortunately, doing so isn’t very straightforward. There isn’t a “fake GPS location” setting built in to either iOS or Android, and neither do most apps let you spoof your location through a simple option

Android Location Spoofing
Search for “fake GPS” on Google Play, and you’ll find tons of options, some free and others not, and some that require your phone to be rooted.

One app that doesn’t need your phone to be rooted—so long as you’re using Android 6.0 or newer—is called FakeGPS Free, and it’s really easy to use it to fake your Android phone location.

If you’re interested in trying a different Android location spoofer, we’ve confirmed that the following free location changing apps work much like FakeGPS Free: Fake GPS, Fly GPS, and Fake GPS Location.

Another method is to use Xposed Framework. You can install an app, such as Fake My GPS, to let certain apps use the pretend location and others use your real location.

iPhone Location Spoofing
Faking your iPhone location isn’t as easy as it is on an Android device—you can’t just download an app for it. However, software makers have built desktop programs that make this easy.

Fake iPhone or iPad Location With 3uTools
3uTools is the best way to fake your iPhone or iPad location because the software is free, and we’ve confirmed that it works with iOS and iPadOS 16.

Reports of satellite navigation problems in the Black Sea suggest that Russia may be testing a new system for spoofing GPS, New Scientist has learned. This could be the first hint of a new form of electronic warfare available to everyone from rogue nation states to petty criminals.

On 22 June, the US Maritime Administration filed a seemingly bland incident report. The master of a ship off the Russian port of Novorossiysk had discovered his GPS put him in the wrong spot – more than 32 kilometres inland, at Gelendzhik Airport.

After checking the navigation equipment was working properly, the captain contacted other nearby ships. Their AIS traces – signals from the automatic identification system used to track vessels – placed them all at the same airport. At least 20 ships were affected.

While the incident is not yet confirmed, experts think this is the first documented use of GPS misdirection – a spoofing attack that has long been warned of but never been seen in the wild.