It is now easier than ever to share your precise, real-time location with friends on Snapchat thanks to a new feature the platform rolled out on Friday. 

What You Need To Know

  • Through a new feature called "Live Location," Snapchat users can now share their real-time location for 15 minutes up to several hours with another friend on the app 

  • Live Location aims to “help Snapchatters look out for their friends as they continue to resume their social life, return to campus, or begin to travel again,” the platform said 

  • Snapchat and It’s On Us launched a public service campaign asking individuals to take a pledge that will help create a safer environment at schools across the country

Dubbed “Live Location,” Snapchat users can now share their real-time location for anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours with another friend on the app. 

Live Location aims to “help Snapchatters look out for their friends as they continue to resume their social life, return to campus, or begin to travel again,” the platform said in an emailed release to Spectrum News. 

There are a few limitations to this buddy system, which Snapchat purposefully designed with safety in mind: While users will be able to share their location instantly through the click of a button, they can only share their location with an individual friend who they are already connected with on Snapchat – there is no option for a user to share their location with their entire friends list. 

In addition to imposing time limits on the precise location-sharing feature, Snapchat will also allow users to pause their location-sharing without notifying the other individual in order to reduce “the risk of stalking or undue pressure to constantly share.”    

Snap Maps have been available for use since 2017, but until now users’ locations could not be updated in real-time to show their current whereabouts. The new feature will operate similar to the Find My iPhone tool, with some notable differences. According to Snapchat, around 250 million users connect with friends on Snap Maps each month.

Location sharing on Snap Maps will continue to be turned off by default, meaning users will need to opt-in to the feature.

In an internal survey of 1,500 daily Snapchat users in the U.S. conducted last year, the company said 71% of respondents agreed that Snap Maps “lets me know where my best friends are and what they’re doing.” 

Friday’s announcement also came with a new partnership between Snapchat and It’s On Us, a movement created during Barack Obama’s second term in office that aims to combat sexual harassment and assault on college campuses. 

Snapchat and It’s On Us launched a public service campaign asking individuals to take a pledge that will help create a safer environment at schools across the country.

The pledge has four parts: 

  • Recognize that sex without consent is sexual assault
  • Identify situations where sexual assault or sexual violence may occur
  • Intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given
  • Help create environments where sexual assault is unacceptable and support survivors 

Snapchat will also include more information and educational tools about preventing campus sexual assault within the app, with a particular focus on increasing bystander awareness. 

According to recent data compiled by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, 26% of female undergraduate students report they were raped or sexual assaulted by violence, physical force or incapacitation; that number hovers just under 7% for male undergraduates. 

The rate of sexual assaults and rape are even higher for members of minority groups, particularly among the LGBTQ+ community.