After Google and Facebook, WhatsApp joins the live location sharing bandwagon

Popular messaging app WhatsApp launched a new location sharing feature on Tuesday. The new feature, however, will allow you to track your friends in real time. This feature has been borrowed from its parent company Facebook that added Live location sharing on Messenger.

Your location is shared at the chat level, which means you can share your live location in a one-on-one WhatsApp conversation or a group chat. “[It’s] short-term in nature, it’s limited in duration”. The sender can stop the live location sharing by clicking “Stop sharing” button. When a users willingly shares their live location, they will get an option to chose between various time frames for the live tracking to last.

This feature allows you to share your instant location based on permissions you provide to people in your list. 1 hour is the default option. The feature is also encrypted like messages and you can be sure there is no safety issue in using the new feature.

“For women, in unsafe and risky situations, it may be a helpful tool for police officials and families, as real-time locations can be shared easily in WhatsApp”, said Ranjana Kumari from Centre for Social Research. They show user’s initial location and a “live until” time.

Now, when users opt-in to Live Location, friends can see their location on the map, which automatically updates as they move. Have you tried the Live Location feature?

A number of apps have recently run into trouble over location services.

Press the little icon that looks like a paper plane on the top if you’re on iOS or the big green one if you’re on Android for sending the live location. “However, this is software and we are always listening to feedback from users, so that’s something that we will continually evaluate”.

WhatsApp is available on both iOS and Android. With the end-to-end encryption, you can securely share your whereabouts only with those you choose. The timer also appears to serve a security function. And the users will receive the feature in the coming weeks.