Have you seen your friends’ Stories having fun, but don’t know where they are? Maybe that’s with the days contacted: Instagram should launch a map that displays the real-time location of your contacts. Still in the development phase, the Friends Map closely resembles a Snapchat function.
Screenshots of the feature were leaked by Alessandro Paluzzi, and the feature was later confirmed by Meta to TechCrunch. The function is completely optional, and the user can choose not to share their location with anyone.
According to the leaked images, it will be possible to select which friends will be able to see your location, but only choosing between followers you follow or the list of best friends — no sharing with specific people, for example. Any content shared with the location tag will appear on the map.
In addition to sharing your location, you’ll be able to leave a message — like those that appear in your direct message list. This will allow users to share a short message to notify friends about something happening at that location.
The feature also has a “ghost” mode, which hides the last active location. By the way, the location will only be updated when the user opens the Instagram app. This should help save battery life, but it makes the function less accurate than Google Maps or Apple Find My location sharing.
As it is an experimental feature, Meta has not released any release date for the novelty.
One more function of the… Snapchat
A friend map isn’t something new to the market. Snapchat, which remains popular in the United States, has a Snap Map, which gathers the location of contacts and public content in a given location.
This isn’t the first feature Instagram has “taken inspiration from” Snapchat. The whole concept of Stories came from the neighboring network, which stood out for temporary posts and messages that self-destruct.
Finally, Instagram also “borrowed” concepts and functions from other networks. Threads, for example, is very similar to X (Twitter), while Reels are very reminiscent of TikTok’s short videos.
