The popular messaging app WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature that will allow its users to share their location with their contacts in real time. WhatsApp’s new feature — live location sharing in chats, is designed for short-term use. You will be able to share your location with a group or in a private chat, letting people know where you are. Other popular apps that already have the new WhatsApp location tracking feature includes — Facebook Messenger, Google Maps, and Telegram.
WhatsApp already allows you to share your location — the difference here is that you could only share your present location until now, as a one-time share. With the new feature, the location is dynamic and updates in real time, even after you leave the WhatsApp app. You can also manually stop sharing location data within a chat at any time. Live location sharing doesn’t affect your battery life much, WhatsApp says. The location is secured in the same way other WhatsApp messages.
When you try to share your location in a WhatsApp chat by tapping the attach icon, you will be prompted to select the duration of time for which your location will be active to others. You can only choose from one of the preset options — 15 min, 1 hour (default), and 8 hours and optionally, add a comment. The new feature live location is available for both Android and iOS users and will be rolling out in the form of an update.
