Recently I needed to obtain the specific coordinates of a point on the earth’s surface, and didn’t have my hiking GPS handy. Turns out you can do this pretty easily from iOS using either Apple or Google Maps, neither of which reveal coordinates directly. This technique assumes you can get to a desktop computer later, and should work just as well with Google Maps from an Android device.
1) Using Apple or Google Maps, press and hold on the location until a pin is dropped. Tap on the pin’s details to find its “Share” feature, and send the new location to your own email address.
2) From your desktop computer, click the link in the email you receive to open it in Google Maps.
3) In the browser, right-click on the pin and select “What’s Here?” from the menu.
4) The Location field in Google Maps changes from a human-friendly rendering to lat/long.
Presto!
Of course, there are any number of 3rd-party apps you could use to get coordinates directly from the phone – this is assuming you don’t have one of those and just need a quick solution.
You could also paste the URL in your mobile browser. Then look at the long URL that it directs to. The coordinates will be in the URL.
That way, no need for a desktop computer.