O Instagram is developing a “Friend Map” feature that will allow users to see the location of their friends in real time.
The company says the feature is an internal prototype and is not being tested externally. It was first detected by the engineer Alexander Paluzzi, which often discovers social media features in development before their official launch.
If Instagram is indeed planning to launch the “Friend Map”, it would be copying yet another feature from the popular Snapchat, after also copying the Stories of the application in 2016. With this new functionality, Instagram would be giving its users another reason to spend more time on its application and less on other companies' services.
According to a screenshots published on Threads by Paluzzi, Instagram's Friend Map would allow users to choose who can see their location. The screenshots also indicate that location data would be end-to-end encrypted.
The user can choose to share their location with followers who follow them, with their “Close Friends” list or with no one. The map would also include a “Ghost Mode” setting that would hide your last active location.
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“Friend Map” allows users to leave short messages, or “Notes,” on the map for others to see. Instagram Notes are currently the short messages that appear at the top of DM's, but if the Portuguese translated “Friends Map” is released, users will have the option to post these short updates on the map.
The Notes on Map feature could be used to do things like notify your friends about a new restaurant you're eating at.
Google senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan said young users were turning to apps like Instagram and TikTok, rather than Google or Google Maps, when looking to discover new places.
And after threatening Google, Instagram may now be trying to take on Snapchat and Apple with its “Friend Map”.
