It's official. Snapchat has joined the world of mapping.
In a new feature announced recently, Snapchat introduced ‘Snap Map’ which would allow their 160-plus million users to share their location with each other. The new feature included a user-wide video that showed two women using the app’s map to find their friends’ location and videos at a nearby concert.
Snapchat product designer Jack Brody said that “this map isn't about where am I, it's about where are my friends and what are they up to? It's not about figuring out how to get to your destination, but about discovering where you want to go."
When the app updated on my phone, I was admittedly curious. Like many Snapchat updates, I thought that this one would be met with yet another chorus of uproar by its millions of users that we would soon get accustomed to. I mean, we had just gotten used to navigating the app’s most recent update, why did we need another one? However, upon pinching my camera screen and allowing location permissions while I scoped out the latest feature, I like so many others, immediately felt a red flag.
Upon allowing location permissions, your Bitmoji appears on a map at your exact location. Around your area are spots of varying colors on the ‘heat map’ which allows you to see what is going on not only in your area but in other culture and countries around the world. When you zoom into a ‘hot spot’ on the map and select the area, you’re shown a catalog of Snapchats collected via ‘Our Story’ in a specific area.
When you zoom in on your own Bitmoji on the map, you see just how accurate your location is, which is down to the very street that you live on and the last time you were active on the app. But, these aren’t the only aspects of the new feature that caught my and millions of others attention. In addition, your Bitmoji changes based on what you’re doing. If someone is moving, the location service assumes that they’re driving and you see their Bitmoji appear in a yellow car. If they’re listening to music, music notes appear next to their Bitmoji. If they’re near a beach, pool or water park attraction, their Bitmoji appears in a swimsuit. With the update, you become a fly on the wall in someone else’s life because you can keep tabs on what your friends are doing from the comfort of your own location.
Fortunately, there is a way to avoid the potentially stalker-ish tendencies of your Snapchat friends. You can disable your location by entering ‘Ghost Mode,’ which allows you and only you to see where you’re located on the map unless you’ve enabled your location again.
Whichever privacy setting you prefer, be sure to check out Snapchat’s latest feature. It’s sure to be the talk of you and your friends for days to come.
Stay safe and ‘Happy Snapping!’
