WhatsApp has finally rolled out the 'Live Location' feature to its 1.3 billion users across the world. With this feature, you can share your location in real-time with your family or friends, meaning you can track them wherever they're. That said, there's no need for the user to keep WhatsApp open as this feature even works with WhatsApp open in the background.
Also, WhatsApp says that this feature is completely end-to-end encrypted, and it even allows users to choose to stop sharing at any time or let the Live Location timer simply expire.
Here's how it works:
Open a chat with whom you want to share the location. Under 'Location' tab in the attach button, there's a new option to 'Share Live Location.' Tapping on the 'Share Live Location,' button, you will be asked to choose how long you want to share the location in real time- it will be of 15 minutes, 1 hour, or eight hours. WhatsApp has set 1 hour period as a default share option.
So, after sharing the location in real time, each person in the chat will be able to see your location on a map. And it more than one person shares their Live Location in the group, all locations shared by every person will be visible on the same map.
WhatsApp revealed that the feature it is in the process of rolling out to both Andriod and iPhone users. And the users will receive the feature in the coming weeks.
Having said that, WhatsApp is not the first instant messaging service to roll out the Live Location feature. Telegram and Facebook's own Messenger application has this feature for quite some time now.
Telegram lets you share your real-time location with others for either 15 minutes or for one hour or for eight hours, and on the other hand, Facebook Messenger allows you to share the location in real-time for just one hour.
Alternatively, Google Maps also rolled out the Live Location feature earlier this year, and it's way ahead of the competition because you can share your location permanently with others. Apple's iMessage also offers Live Location feature, although for just one hour.
