Is Snapchat's New Map Feature Cool or Creepy?
- Haley Snyder
- Jun 25, 2017
- 2 min read
via Snapchat: Snap Map
This Thursday, June 22, Snapchat released a new feature that allows users to see where their friends are on a map. Snapchat announced: “Introducing Snap Map! 🗺 See what’s happening around the world and find your friends.”
To begin using the Snap Map feature, a user must pinch their camera screen in the app. When the map opens users can see where their friends are, and what events are happening nearby. Snaps that users add to “Our Story” now have the potential to appear on the map as well.
Users can choose to either share their locations, or to enter “Ghost Mode,” a feature that keeps a user’s location private. If a user chooses to disclose their location on Snap Map, their location on the map will update every time they open the Snapchat app.
The map also shows how densely populated different locations through a heat-map like visual. For example, 5th Ave of New York City, which is a popular shopping area, is colored bright red.
While these features may be helpful to figuring out what’s happening on a Friday night, they’re also… how do I put it… hella creepy.
As Dani Deahl, a journalist from The Verge points out:
Because Snap Map shows exactly where you are every time you open the app, there are a number of dangerous scenarios that could take place without a user even posting a Snap publicly. What if you’re at home alone, at night, and open the app to view Snaps posted by friends? What if you’re walking by yourself and get a ping that a friend sent you a Snap message, so you read it? What if you’re traveling and want to take a pic with a location-specific filter to post later on another platform?
Snapchat, however, claims that this won’t be a problem, as the app takes a handful of precautions. Snapchat will regularly remind users when their location is being shared, will delete location data regularly, and will only keep an updated location online for eight hours.
Even so, the popularity of this feature will likely depend on how comfortable users feel using it. So, what will it be? “Happy snapping,” or “happy stalking”?
Haley Snyder
A graduate of the New School's Eugene Lang College of the Liberal Arts, and the founder of Millennial Trash. [she/her]
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