What to know

  • Instagram is developing a ‘Friend Map’ feature to let users share their location with friends.
  • The ‘Friend Map’ is similar to Snapchat’s Snap Map and will let users share notes directly with their tagged location. Users will also have the option to hide their last active location to preserve their privacy.

Instagram appears to be working on a new ‘Friend Map’ feature that will allow users to find out their friends’ locations. Although it’s not yet been tested in the wild, so to speak, the feature has already been spotted and is confirmed by Meta to be in development as well. Here’s what we know so far.

Instagram borrows from Snapchat with ‘Friend Map’

Anyone who’s been on social media apps for long enough would know that Instagram’s Friend Map sounds suspiciously similar to Snapchat’s Snap Map. And it wouldn’t be the first time that these apps are borrowing from each other. Instagram previously borrowed ‘Stories’ from Snapchat as well. So this is nothing new. 

Instagram already has a searchable in-app map that lets users find tagged locations. With ‘Friend Map’, this will (seemingly) extend to your friends’ locations as well, that is, if they’ve chosen to share their location with you. 

  • Image: Alex193a
  • Image: Alex193a

Eagle-eyed tech enthusiast Alessandro Paluzzi managed to find Instagram’s Friend Map in development and shared his findings on a Threads post. 

Expected Features

Although the features are far from being confirmed, the leaked images give enough fodder for speculation. Instagram users will soon be able to share notes for the map about events happening near them. This could potentially be a game-changer for not just socially minded users but also anyone who’s just looking for an excuse to share their excitement about things happening around them.  

  • Image: Alex193a
  • Image: Alex193a

There also appears to be a ‘Ghost mode’ that will hide your last active location – an important feature for those who don’t want the addition of ‘Friend Map’ to compromise their privacy. 

As mentioned before, the feature is still in development so it will be some time before users will be able to take it for a spin for beta testing. But whenever that happens to be, we’ll make sure to update you on the same.