Are you going home after a night out or going on a date with someone new? Snapchat's "Share live location" feature helps keep you and your friends safe.
The feature, found on the Snap Map, ensures that you and your friends make it home safely by tracking each other's movements until you get to your intended destination.
This is how Snapchat's live location-sharing feature works and how it could help to keep you and your friends safe.
What Is Snapchat’s “Share Live Location” Feature?
Snapchat's "Share live location" is a live location-sharing feature and an expansion of the Snap Map. It shares your whereabouts on the map and works as a buddy system to help friends keep track of each other's movements for safety purposes.
For this safety feature, Snapchat partnered with It’s On Us, a national nonprofit program centered around stopping sexual assault on campus.
The app also has a feature that allows you to see someone's last location on Snapchat. However, the last location feature only shows your approximate location and only updates your location information when you open the app.
How to Share Your Live Location on Snapchat
Snapchat’s live location-sharing feature allows you to share your exact location with close friends and family in real-time. This lets specific contacts keep tabs on you by tracking your movements until you get to your destination or until you feel safe enough to stop sharing.
You have to be friends with whoever you choose to share your live location with. To enable live location sharing, you'll have to go to your friend’s profile and choose how long you'd like to share your live location with them.
Here's how to share your live location with a friend on Snapchat:
- Open Snapchat on your mobile phone.
- Find your friend's profile and tap the plus (+) icon in the bottom-right corner.
- Tap Share live location and choose a duration.
- Follow the prompts to enable location settings on your mobile phone. Your friend will now be able to track you on the Snap Map.
Similar to WhatsApp's live location sharing feature, you can share your live location on Snapchat for a set period of time—either one hour, eight hours, or always. The feature is turned off by default (unless you choose to always share your location), and there is no option to share your live location with all your friends on Snapchat at once.
You can keep tabs on the status of the live location sharing in the chat window with the friend you've shared it with. To stop tracking, simply tap the Stop Sharing button below the map in the chat window.
Please note that Snapchat shares your live location even when you've closed the app and when you're in Ghost Mode.
How Snapchat's Live Location Sharing Will Keep Users Safe
Snapchat's live location sharing gives you the assurance that someone is watching your live movements to ensure that you are safe and headed in the direction you should be going.
Because your location is shared in real-time, your friends will always know where you are, as long as you don't stop sharing your location. And should they have any concerns, they can contact you to make sure that you're safe.
This feature can come in handy when you leave a friend's place to go home, when you go out on a date with a stranger, or when you're out late.
Are you looking for new places to check out? Learn how to use Snapchat's Snap Map to find places worth visiting.
Live Location Privacy Features
Snapchat gives you control over how you use its live location feature. This is to ensure you're comfortable with when and how often your friends and family are able to track you, and for the sake of your privacy.
You can pause sharing your live location without alerting the friend who is tracking you. Sharing your location temporarily ensures that no one is able to track you all day, every day, unless you continue sharing it again every time it shops sharing.
Finally, the fact that you can only share your live location with users that you are friends with on the app means that no one else can start tracking your exact movements without your consent.
No longer want to share your location on the Snap Map? Turn off your location on Snapchat to stop tracking.
Should You Share Your Live Location on Snapchat?
It is not necessary to share your live location on Snapchat if you and your friends already use other apps with similar features, like iOS' "Find My" app and WhatsApp's live location-sharing feature.
However, if you and your friends prefer to track each other on the app, then it makes sense to use the feature.