Facebook also shows you an estimate of how long it would take you to meet your friends if going by car - that ETA is shared with others, as well. As mentioned earlier, you can share your location for up to 60 minutes, and there will be an indicator to show you how much time is remaining. You’ll then see a map of your current position and the option to share it live. On iOS or Android, you can tap on the location icon within a message to begin sharing your location. Locations can be shared with as many people as desired, and including location-sharing within Messenger means it’s accessible to the more than 1 billion people who use Facebook’s chat app every month. The launch of Live Location comes on the heels of a new Google Maps location feature release last week: “Share location.” Users can broadcast their whereabouts for a set period of time (between 15 minutes and three days) or indefinitely, and pin a person’s location to their home screen for speedier access.Borrowing a page out of Apple’s playbook, this feature makes it easier to coordinate with friends by determining their location via a pin on a map.
“Many of use make plans on Messenger that involve finding each other, or letting friends and loved ones know we’re on the way,” Marcus wrote in a blog post. “Sharing your location will also help some of you feel safer on the way home.” But Facebook disabled the feature after a Harvard student demonstrated that it could be used to track a users’ location histories. Prior to 2015, Messenger shared a momentary exact location with each message. You can turn Live Location off after it’s been activated - a countdown timer lets you know how much longer your location will be shared before you need to re-enable it.Īs TechCrunch points out, it’s not Facebook’s first location-sharing rodeo. “Live Location is super helpful when trying to coordinate with friends, telling people how close you are when you’re on your way to an appointment or even sharing where you are with your roommate when you’re on your way home at night,” wrote product manager Selena Wang.įacebook said Live Location won’t impact battery life - “We put a lot of time and effort into minimizing battery consumption to the point you wouldn’t even have to think about it,” head of Messenger David Marcus told TechCrunch. They will also be able to see an estimate of how long it would take to get to your location by car.Īccording to Facebook, “How far away are you?” is one of the most used phrases on Messenger as people talk to friends and family. Contacts can track your progress when you’re on your way, or find your current location if you are meeting somewhere.
For up to one hour, you can expose your real-time location to the chat participants of your choice. On Monday, Facebook began rolling out Live Location, a new Messenger feature that lets users share up-to-date location info with friends and family.
Fitbit Versa 3įacebook Messenger makes it easy to keep in touch with friends and family, but offers little in the way of finding them. But that is changing.