Following the footsteps of its parent company Facebook, WhatsApp has finally started a feature of real time location sharing called ‘Live Location’. This could turn out to be an interesting way of ensuring people that you are stuck somewhere, and assure them to take you on your face value whenever they inquire about your location. WhatsApp claims that it will have its own unique identity. Both Android and iPhone users will be able to use this feature. It will be as easy as sending your location to someone.
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The feature allows the user to pin on the map and indicate his/her location which differentiates it from other location sharing apps. From safety perspective, this can prove to be highly useful. This will help your friends/family to continuously track you for the duration you like. The time options for location tracking are as following:
- 15 minutes
- 1 hour
- 8 hours
However, if some users are not comfortable to continuously keep themselves being tracked, they can manually turn off the location sharing.
Although some of its competitors, like Snapchat and Foursquare, provide live location sharing option but the sheer popularity makes WhatsApp the most convenient option. Some of the users find it safe to keep track of others in case they cannot accompany them at odd hours.
What makes WhatsApp a good fit as compared to other apps is the fact that it is not a messenger. Facebook had been the pioneer of this idea. It started temporary location sharing early this year and kept working on this idea in different versions. The feature has been part of the main Facebook since many years.
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How to use location sharing?
In order to use Live Location, you will have to open the chat box with one of the contacts. There is an option of ‘Location’ in the attach icon, you will have to choose ‘Share Live Location’. The sender can determine the duration of location sharing as all the chosen contacts will see you live on a map.
Furthermore, location sharing can be used by multiple people. The locations can be shared simultaneously and their icons will show up on the map. The company also claims that their location sharing feature will be secured with end-to-end encryption just like its chat content.
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