Tech Updates

Snapchat launches location-sharing feature Snap Map

Snapchat’s next big characteristic wants to get you to fulfill up with pals in actual existence instead of just looking at every different’s life on your phone. Snap Map lets you proportion your contemporary place, which appears to friends on a map and updates while you open Snapchat.

It’s rolling out today to all iOS and  Android users globally. “We’ve constructed an entirely new manner to explore the world! See what’s happening, find your buddies, and get inspired to move on a journey!” Snap writes on its blog. [Update: Snap Map was based on Snapchat’s secret acquisition of social map app Zen for $250 million to $350 million. Please read our fullSStory on Snap’s acquisition of Zen here.]

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How to apply Snapchat’s Snap Map

When you open Snapchat as soon as you have access to the function, you may pick out to percentage your area with all of your friends, some friends you pick out, or you could disappear from the map at any time by going into Ghost Mode or now not commencing Snapchat for some hours. Alternatively, place sharing is becoming off through default, and you may depart it that way to lurk, looking at what friends are up to.

To access the Snap Map, you pinch the domestic display screen of your Snapchat digital camera. From there, you can search where buddies are for your town or the sector. Tapping on their “ActionMoji” BitMoji avatar opens theirStoryy to expose what they’re as much as, or lets you message them immediately to make meetup plans. Snapchat robotic selections and ActionMoji are based on your location, time of day, and different factors.

Outside of the area-sharing element, Snap Map allows customers to discover Story content material past the properly-worn Stories feed and the effective but buried Story Search characteristic. Users can publish Snapchat Story posts to Our Story to be eligible for their content to seem non-buddies for around 24 hours. You can also see “warmness” hues on the Snap Map to see where masses of Snaps are being uploaded, possibly implying a live performance or big occasion from which you’d need to discover Snap Stories.

Snap tells me that Snap Map is designed to boost connections among human beings and their closest pals — engagement that makes up almost 60 percent of interactions on Snapchat, consistent with Sparkler’s facts that changed into commissioned by way of Snap.

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These new ways to floor content material could earn Snapchat extra cash by getting users to observe greater Snaps, even though they no longer want to meet up with buddies. However, Snap tells me there won’t be any ads on the Snap Map if you notice a cluster of content material classified as Featured; that simple method is curated using Snapchat’s team and will also seem inside the Discover phase.

Overall, Snap Map creates a low-friction way to look at who your Snap-addicted friends are and what they’re up to. While now not as unique as an actual-time location-sharing feature, it’s much less likely to creep people out.

The quest to remedy loneliness

[Update: Snapchat appeared to have copied social map startup Zen for this feature, but now we’ve learned that Snap Inc acquired Zen for $250 million to $350 million in cash and some stock. Snap will keep Zen running independently, similar to how Facebook runs Instagram independently. Please read our fullSStory on Snap’s acquisition of Zen here.]

Jeffery D. Silvers
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