Instagram is testing a new feature with real-time location sharing – Friend Map enables you to not only post text and video updates to a map showing the location they were made, but you can also see your friends updates which will appear alongside yours.
First up, this is most definitely aimed at younger users and also it’s most definitely a rip off of the Snap Map feature. However it’s not quite as creepy as it might seem… you have to choose the group of users that can see your locations from either your ‘Close Friends’ or ‘Followers’ that you’ve already followed back.
Before you enable the feature, it’s well worth checking if you’ve got friends or followers who aren’t really close friends or who you’ve followed by more out of politeness than a willingness to share your personal information with. You certainly don’t want to publicly broadcast a ton of updates plotting your location at home this week, followed by locations in Paris indicating that there’s no one home and it’s safe to be burgled!
Where this will be cool, is when you’re out and about with a group of friends – take the upcoming Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, if you’ve travelled as a group it doesn’t mean you’ll be together for the entire 11 days of the competitions. You might be watching one sport and sharing updates that your friends can see while you get to see their updates on your Friend Map.
Another feature is the link to Instagram Notes, you can leave Notes for your friends at locations of your choice, so if you find a great cafe for breakfast you can leave Notes letting the rest of your group know you’ll be back there in the morning and can all meet up.
Will this be useful for businesses? Well it’s going to entirely depend on how engaged you are with your followers and if they’ve followed you and you’ve bothered to follow them back. But potentially it’s a great way to expose your IRL events and updates to users who have already shown interest in your business and drag them to your venue at the times you most want the foot fall.
There’s no news yet on when the feature might be more widely available, or indeed which users in which territories have been granted early access during the test phase. There’s also no indication of how long your Friend Map updates will persist… you might not mind your friends knowing where you are right now, but over time if updates remain visible your entire life could literally be mapped out with people able to easily predict where you’ll be on a future date.
