WhatsApp has announced a notable
new feature today, one that may prove popular with millions of
security-conscious, nosy, and impatient people globally.
Landing on both Android and iOS
“in the coming weeks,” the new Live Location feature allows WhatsApp users to
share their real-time location with friends and family. It’s worth noting here
that WhatsApp already allows you to share your current location, however that
feature is static — if you’re moving around, friends are not able to see where
you’re going.
The new Live Location feature, on
the other hand, lets people track where you are for a period of time stipulated
by you.
How it works
To initiate Live Location, go to
the conversation — individual or group — that you want to share your location
with. Then hit the little “attach” (paper clip) button that exists in the
message field and go to “Location.” Now, in addition to the existing static
location-sharing feature, you’ll see “Share Live Location,” as well.
You can stipulate how long you
wish to share your location for, be it 15 minutes, one hour, or eight hours,
although there doesn’t appear to be a customizable timer that lets you share
your location for “18 minutes,” for example.
Above: Set time
But you can cease sharing your
location at any time by hitting the “stop sharing” button.
Above: Stop sharing?
And, interestingly, multiple
people from the same group can all share their location on the same map.
Above: Group locations
This kind of location-sharing
functionality is nothing new, of course. Glympse has offered something similar
for years, while France’s Zenly has been gaining traction for its
location-sharing app. Google, too, had embraced real-time location sharing with
Latitude, a service it killed off back in 2013. However, last year Google
launched its new standalone Trusted Contacts app, which offers near-identical
functionality, before bringing another similar feature directly into Google Maps
back in March.
But with more than one billion
active daily users, WhatsApp has emerged as the social glue for countless
social interactions — covering friends, families, neighbors, work colleagues,
and everyone in between.
There are many use-cases for this
feature — if you’re the sort of person who hates hanging around waiting for
someone to arrive at a designated meeting spot, you can see (if the other
person allows) exactly how long you’ll have to wait. But perhaps the most
common use-case will be worried parents or partners wanting to know where their
loved ones are late at night.
For the privacy-concerned,
WhatsApp is quick to remind users that — like messages and calls — Live
Location is “end-to-end encrypted.”
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