You Can Now Track The Location Of Your Family And Friends On Whatsapp

More than 1 billion people in over 180 countries use Whatsapp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere.

And it is only right that the instant messaging platform keeps coming up with ways to be better.

Early this year, the company introduced status similar to the Instagram stories which are used by a lot of people right now.

The newest update is the introduction of live location sharing which is supposed to be out in a couple of weeks as the company announced.

The new Live Location feature will allow users of the application to share their location on the go with friends and family.

According to the company

Whether you’re meeting up with friends, letting loved ones know you’re safe, or sharing your commute, Live Location is a simple and secure way to let people know where you are. This end-to-end encrypted feature lets you control who you share with and for how long. You can choose to stop sharing at any time or let the Live Location timer simply expire.

If you’re probably confused at this point, it’s because you know that WhatsApp already has a service that allows you share your location.

Well, the difference is that the old location sharing service is static and if you’re moving around, friends are not able to see where you’re going.

However, with the new Live Location feature, people are able to track where you are for a period of time stipulated by you.

IMAGE: WHATSAPP BLOG

To use this service when it rolls out, here’s what you have to do

Open a chat with the person or group you want to share with. Under “Location” in the attach button, there’s a new option to “Share Live Location.” Choose for how long you want to share and tap send. Each person in the chat will be able to see your real-time location on a map. And if more than one person shares their Live Location in the group, all locations will be visible on the same map.

African parents are definitely rejoicing at this new feature.