Snapchat‘s location services work quite differently from other apps, allowing users to make their presence on the map as visible or invisible as they prefer. Snapchat has come a long way from its humble beginnings. With over 200 million daily active users, Snapchat has grown into one of the most popular social media platforms today. The app is primarily known for letting users send messages with embedded pictures and media that expire over time, but in 2017, it added Snap Map, a feature that allowed users to reveal their physical location to each other. Unfortunately, this also led to a slew of privacy concerns.
The Snap Map works as an interactive map that can show a user where their friends are based on the location activity pulled from their phones. When enabled, participating Snapchat users will appear on their friends’ maps as Bitmojis. So how often does Snapchat update users’ location? According to its support page, the location of Snapchat users will only be updated whenever the app is open. It won’t update a user’s location at any other time, even when it’s running in the background — unless the user specifically enables a feature that would allow it to do so. Likewise, the user’s location will only be revealed to those they specify on their contact list.
How To Become More Visible Or Invisible On Snapchat
Things get a little tricker when it comes to sharing photos to the Snap Map. Users can submit photos to the Snap Map, which unlike their precise location will be shared publicly to anyone using Snap Map. Submitting a photo doesn’t guarantee it will be selected to make it onto the Snap Map, but users should take care to avoid sharing identifiable landmarks if they wish to keep their location private. Otherwise, the Snaps could reveal the location of where they were taken to anyone who views them.
Snapchat might not update the user’s Snap Map location when closed, but for those who want their friends or family to know their updated location for safety, security, or any other reason, there’s a way to do just that. By using the live location sharing feature, users can opt to constantly reveal their current location for as little as 15 minutes or as long as 8 hours, even when the app is running in the background. Doing so requires them to tap on a friend from their contacts, then choose the ‘Share My Live Location‘ option from their profile.
Snapchat users can also opt to make their location known only to a select group of friends, or to everyone but a few exceptions. To do so, users need to tap on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Map screen, and then pick their desired option under the ‘Who Can See My Location‘ tab. Those who simply want to disappear from the Snap Map altogether can choose Ghost Mode at the top of the same menu, which gives them the option to either make it last permanently or disable itself after a set time.
It goes without saying that users should only use any of Snapchat‘s location-based services with their closest friends or family, as there might be people they barely know hiding in their contacts.
