Facebook Now Allows You To Send Location Map In Messenger

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Facebook made some updates to its location-sharing feature on Thursday, allowing users to share a map of their location directly within a conversation on Messenger. Moreover, apart from sharing one’s own location, a user can search and share the location of other places as well. So users can send locations of places, such as restaurants, music festivals, etc., where they can meet up with others, or they can just simply inform others of their whereabouts.

Full control to users

Facebook’s new feature can be accessed by clicking on the More icon or the location pin present at the bottom of the screen. Though users were able to share their location previously, the recent update aims to make the process easier for people looking to share locations with their friends, family or colleagues.

In addition, it will impart users with complete control over the time and process of sharing their location information. “You only send a location when you tap on the location pin and then choose to send it as a separate message,” explained the social networking giant. Though the messenger app runs continuously in the background, it will never retrieve any location information unless a user enables location services for the app.

Further, the terms of permissions remain the same, and Facebook is not going to demand any additional approvals for the service. Also sending a location is entirely dependent on the user, and he/she can always disable the location feature. Thus, the new update, which is replacing the previous location version, acts as one of the “when you need it” features.

Facebook plans more GPS features for Messenger

Available for all Messenger apps on Android and iOS devices, the Facebook update marks the end of the always-on location feature, which aided constant sharing of the user’s coordinates. This means that the blue arrow has been replaced by a pin button, which, on being tapped, pushes out a map with the user’s current location. By selecting this, users can send their locations to others or select other locations to share.

Stan Chudnovsky, head of Facebook Messenger, indicated that the company is planning to introduce more GPS features in the Messenger app.

“What we’re launching is the foundation of everything that’s coming,” he told TechCrunch.

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