Snapchat’s Map Explore lets you track your friends.
With its focus put on constantly upgrading its features, Snapchat has enhanced its Map. Called as Map Explore, the new feature tracks where your friends are currently and also tracks their movement.
They don’t physically have to tag themselves or check in at places. The app just generates statuses by keeping a watch on their movement. A little freaking thought of letting someone spying your movement, but Snapchat says it is optional.
What is new in Map Explore?
Map Explore brings a more conventional User Interface to help make the feature more convenient for users. Map Explore updates are based on real life actions of you friends. They have to willingly share their location for the app to track them. Your friends location will disappear if they haven’t opened the app in eight hours.
The new feature gives information of Snapchat based location, which gives you a real life update of what’s happening elsewhere. Where have your friends been hanging out without you. What are the places visited most often by your friends and many other updates.
Is the users privacy being compromised?
Snapchat has clarified that one has to wilfully share its location for other user to track them. It is optional for the user to enable this feature, so privacy is secure. But when a user demands for the other user to enable this feature so that he can exactly track their movement ( parents, spouse), then isn’t this a constrain on privacy?
Yes Parents can track their children, employees can be tracked. They can’t sit at home and say they were on field working. But then this also gives concern on privacy as hackers if they get access can very easily track their victims.
Currently Map Explore is living with many concerns. The new feature is meant to make interactions more interesting but it seems there is a lot of work for Snapchat to make this feature adaptable by its users.
