Facebook Have Added Location Sharing to Messenger

Guardian

Location marking is becoming an increasingly sought-after feature in the tech world. Facebook flirted with it with their check-in feature and now they've brought Messenger into the mix. On Monday, they added a feature which enables you to share you location live for up to an hour.

Judging from what Facebook's reps have been saying about it, the main aim is to allow people to indicate how far away they are from a meeting place, indicate that a meeting place has changed or anything else along those lines. You have to choose which friends you share your location with, and once that's done they can track you for the full 60 minutes.

This comes only a week after Google announced that they were adding a similar feature to Maps. Apple also have a similar service tied to their in-house messaging app. Facebook won't be able to edge out either of them as far as the location technology is concerned, but on the messaging side, they're miles ahead.

Being able to share your location with basically everyone you've ever met (and some people you haven't) could have a myriad of different uses beyond just making sure you're both going to the right pub. Say, for example, a friend messages you to say that they're in a dangerous situation and need you to come and help, if they can share their exact location for an hour, it could make all the difference.

Sharing your location is easy, all you have to do is select the location icon. On the mobile app, it's in the 'More' menu, which is indicated by a '...' icon. That will show you where you are on a map, and then you can press a button on the bottom of the screen to share, and again to stop sharing. A little countdown clock icon indicates how much time you have left. You may have to go into the app settings and turn location services on.

You can also share a static location, but that feature has been available for some time now. You can activate it from the same page, simply by pressing the 'send' button on the top corner of the screen. The Live Location update is officially out, but depending on where you are in the world, it might be a few days yet before it becomes available.