CALIFORNIA – WhatsApp, a social media giant, on Wednesday unveiled a new feature that will enable users to share their location in real-time with family and friends on their contact list.
The company said in a blog post, “Today, we’re rolling out a new feature that allows you to share your location in real-time with family or friends. Whether you’re meeting up with friends, letting loved ones know you’re safe, or sharing your commute, Live Location is a simple and secure way to let people know where you are”.
This end-to-end encrypted feature lets users control who you share with and for how long. “You [users] can choose to stop sharing at any time or let the Live Location timer simply expire,” it added.
Whatsapp announced the new feature after its parent company Facebook launched a temporary location sharing feature in May this year.
How to Use It
“Open a chat with the person or group you want to share with. Under “Location” in the attach button, there’s a new option to “Share Live Location.” Choose for how long you want to share and tap send. Each person in the chat will be able to see your real-time location on a map. And if more than one person shares their Live Location in the group, all locations will be visible on the same map”.
Live Location is available on both Android and iPhone and will be rolled out in the app in the coming weeks.
